LAHORE, Aug 23: The Punjab government on Thursday decided to arrest hoarders of essential items and develop a close liaison among various departments, agencies and district governments to control price hike and profiteering in Ramazan.
A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi while presiding over a meeting here that was also attended by Food Minister Hussain Jahanian Gardezi, Chief Secretary Salman Siddique, Lahore Nazim Mian Amer Mehmood, Price Control Committee Chairman Khawaja Tahir Zia, secretaries of various departments and district coordination officers of key cities.
Elahi directed the food minister to convene a meeting of the representatives of the Punjab supplies board; price control committee; agriculture marketing, industries and food departments; police and district governments to devise a strategy to ensure availability of essential items in the market at reasonable rates in Ramazan.
He said a strategy should be made in league with price control committees to maintain prices of essential items in major cities of the province, adding that monitoring teams should be formed to check prices of essential items in the holy month. He said these teams should send reports to the provincial government on a daily basis.
The chief minister asked the provincial and district governments to coordinate to enforce the federal government’s policy on provision of daily use items to people through utility stores. He asked district governments and provincial departments to ensure supply of essential items to the market in Ramazan.
Various proposals to improve market committees’ working were also floated at the meeting. The chief minister ordered district governments to activate price magistrates. He said a system should be evolved to collect timely information about the supply of flour, pulses, ghee and other items to the market so that immediate action could be taken against the hoarders.
Elahi urged meetings with traders and ghee manufacturers to keep essential items’ prices under control in Ramazan.
He said the provision of Rs500 monthly stipend each to 600,000 poor families should be streamlined.