Roti, Naan prices increased again

Rawalpindi:Muthidda Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) has increased the ‘roti’ prices by Rs5 from Rs15 to Rs20 and ‘Naan’ by Rs5 from Rs20 to Rs25 at their own.

While, some of ‘Naanbais’ were selling a ‘roti’ at Rs20 but a ‘naan’ at Rs30 here on Monday. The Muthidda Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) issued a notification of increasing prices two days back. The Deputy Commissioner (DC), Rawalpindi Shoib Ali called a meeting on Monday and directed all price magistrates to start a crackdown on Naanbais.

Muthidda Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) President Muhammad Shafiq Qureshi told ‘The News’ that they have increased ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ prices because the government was continuously increasing ‘atta’ prices and LPG prices. “We are buying a normal ‘atta’ bag of a 20-kilogram at Rs1,600 to Rs2,000 and a ‘fine’ atta bag of 80-kilogram at Rs8,500 against Rs5,500. He also said that a ‘roti’ is being sold at Rs30 in Islamabad. He also warned that they would lockdown all city areas because district administration has been harassing them for two days.

Special Price Magistrate Syed Asad Abbas said that we have started crackdown on ‘Naanbais’, selling ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ in high prices for two days. “On the directions of Deputy Commissioner, we are registering FIRs against ‘naanbais’ to send them to jail,” he said. He also said that nobody could increase prices without a proper notification.

Talking to ‘The News’ people belonged to different walks of life said, “It seems that there is ‘banana’ republic where all sellers are selling their items by own rates. They don’t need any kind of government permission to fix the rate of items like ‘roti’. The ‘Naanbais’ have issued their own notification to increase rates of ‘roti’ and displayed price lists on all ‘Tandoors’, said a customer. How we could survive in this situation, if government did not consider public grievances, people will come on roads soon, he warned.