The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration on Monday imposed fine of Rs 0.36 million on 393 shopkeepers involved in over-charging and not displaying rate lists of food items. An official of the ICT administration said that the price checking teams headed by the magistrates had been conducted raids in rural and urban areas of the city for the last three days. The ICT team also arrested 19 people due to profiteering on food times.
The district administration has decided that price checking would be done on daily basis during Ramadan to ensure implementation of rate lists and provision of food items at the discount, he added. The checking teams also confiscated substandard cooking food items and imposed heavy fine on the unhygienic food outlets, sending samples to the laboratory for analysis, he said. Similarly, the ICT administration have sealed a cafe, namely Gloria jeans cafes, in Kohsar Market for violation of Ehtiram-e-Ramadan Ordinance and serving food during the day time.
The ICT administration has set up 35 fair price shops that are functional from the Ist of Ramadan where food items would are available to the consumers at 15 to 20 per cent discount. At these fair price shops 20 kg flour bag is available at Rs 660, Dal Chana at Rs 86 per kg, Basin at Rs 97 per kg, Ghee at Rs 120 per kg. As many as 19 price control committees have been constituted under magistrates to monitor rates of food items and displaying of rate lists.