Effective price control mechanisms should
be devised and enforced for the common man
The
state is responsible to provide basic necessities of life and also to ensure
the availability of food and easy access to food to people as well. Article 38
(d) of the Constitution of Pakistan says, “The State shall provide basic
necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical
relief, for all citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are
permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of
infirmity, sickness or unemployment”.
But
the situation is different on the ground. Like other things the government is
not following its constitution. There is no such set-up of providing finances
to sick, permanently disabled and unemployed. On the other hand, the increasing
food inflation has made it difficult for the remaining poor of the country to
afford a secure meal, as the basic food items have gone beyond their purchasing
power.
Food
security exists when, at all times, all people, have social, physical and
economic access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food which meets their
dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life. In the 1974
World Food Summit, food security was defined for the first time as:
“Availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs
to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in
production and prices”. The concept of food security was further detailed in
terms of: “Access of all people at all times to enough food for an active,
healthy life”.
Food
security has two components — food availability and access to food. Food
availability is attained when sufficient quantities of food are always
available to all people of the country. Access to food is ensured when all the
people of country have enough economic resources to acquire food, which can
meet their dietary needs and nutritional requirements.
Talking
about Islamabad, for instance, the city government Islamabad has organised
weekly Sasta bazaars on different days of the week, i.e., Tuesday, Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday in all the areas of Islamabad, trying to give relief to poor
people. The city government issues price list to the vendors in these bazaars.
This is a good initiative but it is losing its purpose as vendors in different
bazaars are not compliant to the price lists.
People
throng here to buy some households and grocery at economical prices. But, now
as the bulk of the goods are purchased by the local vendors, rather than the
retail customers, prices are close to the ordinary bazaar. The vendors of these
bazaars sell way beyond the notified prices.
The
vendors profit is twofold as they pay rent for setting up a shop here. For a
whole day they pay just 25 rupees per eight square feet plot as rent. They have
their own justification of high prices, i.e. nowadays the prices are high in
Sabzi Mandi Islamabad from where we purchase commodities to sell. Increasing
fuel prices are the main causes of selling commodities on high prices.
The
poor people who buy commodities from these bazaars are of the view that prices
of local food items are increasing day-by-day — vegetables, fruit etc. There is
no such difference of prices here and in other markets. Administration fixes
the prices according to its own will.
The
city government claim they have a system of check and balance in place, and the
rates of commodities are reasonable. But actually, this system exists only on
paper and the vendors of these bazaars do not care about pricelists issued by
the city government. These vendors have been given concession on rent in the
name of low prices and public interest, but the city government fails to keep
the prices reasonable and unable to fulfill its primary purpose i.e. giving
relief to poor people of the country.
For
ensuring availability and easy access to food to the poor people, the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture should take a few urgent steps at the federal level. It
should constitute a committee for all bazaars, hire local vendors, and all the
members of the committee and the vendors should be paid a monthly salary.
The
roles of a committee could be buying all the commodities from farmers and place
them for selling purpose in these bazaars, having check and balance on vendors,
and lastly, collection of the money of sold commodities from all vendors at the
end of the day and deposit all the amount in the ministry’s bank account.
With
this devised set up, the price hike due to middle man role, profit of vendors
and private transportation charges will be controlled.
The writer is based in Islamabad
umar.adnan83@gmail.com
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