No relief for public

Rawalpindi : The government has literally failed to check the highhandedness of ‘naanbais’ who without prior notification of the authorities concerned increased ‘roti’ price by Rs3 and ‘naan’ by Rs5.

Mutthidda Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) ‘roti’ price by Rs3 and are selling it at Rs10 and ‘naan’ by Rs5 which is now sold at Rs15, but the Deputy Commissioner is watching the whole drama with closed eyes.

The situation is only troubling public that is suffering due to indecision of the Punjab government as neither it is reducing the ‘atta’ prices nor enforcing its writ against ‘naanbais’ making them sell the ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ at official rates.

According to the notification issued by Muttahida Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) a ‘roti’ will be sold at Rs10, a ‘naan’ at Rs15 and a ‘kulcha’ at Rs18.

Muttahida Naanbais Welfare Association (MNWA) President Muhammad Shafiq Qureshi told ‘The News’ that they don’t need any notification of local administration to increase ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ prices. For two to three months, we have been pleading before the government to reduce ‘atta’ prices but all our pleas seem to have been ignored, therefore we increased rates of ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ at our own,” he claimed. He said that 84-kilogram ‘Atta’ sack is available in the market at Rs4,500 against Rs3,400 and 84-kilogram ‘mada’ (all-purpose flour) sack is selling at Rs4,600 against Rs3,500. How we could survive in this situation when nobody is listening to us,” he denounced.

Assistant District Collector General (ADCG) Zaheer Anwar Jappa said that they were going to start crackdown against ‘naanbais’ selling ‘roti’ and ‘naan’ on higher prices. “We had called ‘naanbais’ for negotiations on price issue but in vain,” he said. “We will never allow them to loot public,” he warned.