The corruption of the shopkeepers has also increased, the department should take action automatically, the stand of the people. Photo: Facebook
Karachi: In the province of Sindh, including Karachi, the weighing system of common goods is non-existent, while the provincial department, Bureau of Supply and Prices, which is responsible for checking weighing equipment, is practically inactive. is facing severe difficulties.
The Bureau has set up a complaint center for this purpose at Napa Chowrangi Gulshan Iqbal, but people do not file complaints there.
Aftab Alam, the representative of the said complaint center, told the Express Tribune that only one complaint is filed in the said cell, on normal days, one or two complaints are filed every month, but despite the two decades of Ramadan this month, only Three people have filed complaints, all of which are related to selling vegetables and fruits at high rates.
Common people believe that people do not have confidence in the Bureau’s system, hence they do not register their complaints at their complaint centre.
According to Anwar Abru, a resident of Korangi Chakragoth area and an employee of the local university, people are fed up with inflation and the sale of goods at high rates and want to lodge complaints but only if they are heard. Generally it should not be necessary to complain, the staff of the Bureau should take action themselves, as Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners do when given special powers in the month of Ramadan.
According to local lawyer Ghulam Murtaza Khoro, under the Sindh Commodities Act 2005, the Bureau of Supply and Prices can take action on its own, for this purpose they have appointed inspectors, but usually these staff do not go to the markets, this is the reason. The Bureau of Supply and Prices was earlier an independent department and is now a part of the Department of Agriculture. They have all kinds of facilities available to them, but their officers and staff only get salaries and allowances. Yes, performance is nothing.
Tuqeer Chaghatai, a resident of Lyari and a well-known poet and journalist, told The Express Tribune that till a long time ago, the Bureau staff used to check the measuring and weighing equipment in the markets. This has not been done in practice for years.
According to Abdul Rehman, an elder of Sadr, for a long time, he has been seeing many shopkeepers using bricks and stones for weighing, now this practice is so common that no one even objects.
When asked why he did not complain about this illegal act, he said that the system of government in our province is so bad that complaining does not matter, he had filed a complaint two years ago. But till date no reply has been received.
Abdul Ghani, a resident of Landhi who fills his motorcycle with petrol from a petrol pump located near Lucky Star Sadar, said that he is employed in the Sindh Secretariat and fills petrol on his return every day. Because of this, less amount of petrol is obtained from there.
When he was asked why he did not complain to the Bureau of Supply and Prices, he first expressed his ignorance that checking the petrol pump owners is also the responsibility of a department in Sindh. The phrase was “Who asks the head here, let it go as it is going”.
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