A meeting to monitor the arrangements in the Ramazan bazaars set up in Punjab, on daily basis, was held on Tuesday at Civil Secretariat under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Punjab Shamail Ahmad Khawaja.
Satisfaction was expressed over the fact that the public complaints regarding violation of rules and regulations and procedures to implement the general subsidy on edibles remained minimal and the supply position during the first half of Ramazan was also abundance except at some places where people complained about less governmental control in the open markets where the rates had been marginally more than that of in Ramazan bazaars.
Additional Chief Secretary Punjab Shamail Ahmad Khawaja directed the administration to focus on eliminating profiteering in the open markets and asked all the DCOs to convene immediate meetings of District Price Control Committees before the end of second Ashra of Ramazan so that the price situation in the open markets can be reviewed and rationalise if necessary.
The meeting was told that the Labour department as well as Industries department have tightened the checking mechanism of weighing and measuring instruments and scales being used by the shopkeepers both in Ramazan bazaars and open markets. DCO Lahore Captain Muhammad Usman Yousaf (Retd) said that the district administration of Lahore had initiated legal action against more than 30000 shopkeepers involved in criminal short-measuring.
MPA Waheed Gull, Secretary Industries Khalid Sher Dil, Secretary Information & Culture Raja Jehangir Anwar, Special Secretary Agri Marketing Dr Mrs Farah Masood and Director General Industries Khalid Saleem also presented their reports based on the data regarding effectiveness of governmental measures to provide relief to the citizens during the holy month of Ramazan.