According to the data provided by the government inflation is being shown low in decimals but on the contrary goods are being sold expensively in the market due to which it has become difficult for the people to live. Vegetables fruits and pulses are not cheap in the open market due to which it is becoming difficult for the citizens to complete their nutrition.
On the other hand due to the increase in the price of wheat across the country flour has become expensive again. As the prices of wheat increased in Punjab, the price of a bag of flour increased to Rs 150. It should be remembered that after the increase in prices of wheat the price of flour has started to increase once again.
According to media reports the price of 20 kg flour bag has increased from Rs 1650 to Rs 1700 in Lahore and Rs 1850 in Rawalpindi while the price of 10 kg flour bag has increased from Rs 800 to Rs 850. In this regard Chairman Pakistan Flour Mills Association Asim Raza Says that due to the increase in the prices of wheat the price of flour will have to increase.
In Lahore has increased from 2900 to 2950 rupees and in Rawalpindi division to 3050 rupees per 50 kg. The owners of flour mills have expressed fear that the price of flour may increase further in the coming days. Experts have expressed fear that due to severe weather changes after wheat, cotton, tomato, onion, rice and fruit crops will also be severely affected due to which new Crops are likely to be quite expensive which will necessarily have an impact on self-consumption in the coming season.
On the other hand the local crops of fruits like plum and mangos of Charsada are selling on out of reach prices in Peshawar, local plums are selling at RS. 300 to 400 per kg. The gardens of mangos are damaged due to hard weather in Charsadda and Abazi area of KPK that is famous for mangoes. The mangoes produced in Abazai have been affected due to severe climate change, due to which local mangoes are not available at cheap prices to the citizens.
Excessive hot weather has also affected the crop and taste of mangoes. This can be estimated from the fact that the leaves of the mango trees planted in various government offices of the provincial capital Peshawar have turned yellow and the fruits have burned.
Therefore the government needs to focus on saving the crops from severe climatic changes and fixing the prices of wheat and other commodities according to the crop in each season. For this purpose, various offices including the rationing controller are working but the sad thing is that so far these institutions have not been streamlined with regard to the welfare of the people. Due to which colluding with the merchants and the rationing controller they are imposing arbitrary prices of various commodities on the people very easily.
The strange logic is that despite bringing the so-called local government system, citizens are still not represented in determining the prices of commodities. As a result the citizens are always at the mercy of the government committees and merchants who are forced to buy pulses and other packaged items, including vegetables and fruits on the price lists prepared by conspiracy at the government level. It should be remembered that buying meat and poultry is already out of the reach of citizens and the poor people survive on pulses and vegetables but now due to high inflation it has become impossible for them to eat.
So there is a need to form special standing committees at the provincial and federal levels to set the prices of commodities across the country. In those committees women should allow to represent the masses that they can take into real needs of the citizens and free them from the involvement of merchants and rationing controllers.
