No food items at sasta bazaar in Gulberg

PESHAWAR: Residents of Gulberg locality near the cantonment on Monday complained that the government had failed to establish a Sasta Bazaar in their locality despite the pitching of tents along the roads for the last more than four days.

Several area residents told The News that the Sasta Bazaar was a good step for providing some relief to the people but the people responsible for organizing it had handled it poorly.

A milkman in the area, Rahim Gul, said that he regularly visited the tents to check whether or not the food items had been provided to the Sasta Bazaar for onward sale to the masses.

He said the administration should have ensured the food items supply to the bazaar before erecting the tents at the venue. Rahim Gul said that he was a poor man and was delighted when the tents were erected in the area. “It is unfortunate that almost a week has passed but the tented bazaar has yet to receive the supply of various commodities,” he added.

Another shopkeeper, Hassan Ali, said that poor people asked him about the supply to the bazaar when they visited it and found it deserted. He said that the government was playing with the sentiments of people.

The resident said that when the government could not provide the daily use commodities to the people, it should not have established the bazaar in the area.

Karim Khan, who sells fruit on a pushcart in the locality, said that Ramazan would end but the people would not get any food item at the bazaar. He said that the government apparently was not interested to ensure food items to poor people. However, he said, with this level of incompetency, the government was losing credibility. “The Sasta Bazaar was a good step but the authority did not show seriousness about the matter”, he added.

On April 13, Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Kazim Niaz inaugurated Ramazan Sasta Bazaar. After the establishment of such bazaars, the district administration had claimed that the chief secretary had directed the administration to take tangible steps to provide essential food items to the masses at affordable prices during the holy month of Ramazan.

The administration had also claimed that 50 mobile bazaars across the city would provide food items to the masses at discounted rates.