Sunday markets in the city have been selling unhygienic and overpriced food due to the concerned department’s negligence.
While official lists showed a decrease in seasonal vegetables’ prices, they have not been implemented uniformly. Consumers were paying rates higher than the official ones.
Although Sunday markets have been known to offer good quality commodities at fair prices, the situation has changed as only substandard fruits and vegetables adorn Sunday bazaar stalls now.
Despite the district government’s orders, many shopkeepers do not display price lists on their shops, and many of them failed to admit that they were selling poor quality goods, saying instead that their customers were satisfied.
In JoharTown and Model Town Bazaars no senior official was controlling the bazaar and the visitors were at the vendors’ mercy, compelled to buy low quality produce.
Many Sunday market visitors opined that these bazaars required senior officers’ constant attention, otherwise consumers would continue to be cheated in the interest of selfish profiteering.
ModelTown, JoharTown, Sabazaar and IqbalTown resident demanded the administration to take strict action against vendors selling low quality fruits and vegetables at high rates.
Shopkeeper Aslam said that selling at low prices was difficult because of various cost expenditures like transportation and cleaning of the food items. “If we are buying at exorbitant rates from the wholesale market, how can we sell at a low price?” he added.
A Sunday bazaar visitorAli Usman said that there was no price control due to the large conflict between the official and shopkeeper’s prices, adding that he made several complaints but there the government took no action.
Further, Nasreen Imtiaz complained that shopkeepers were free to demand whatever price they wanted. “Buying from the Sunday market has become so confusing, if we want a fair price, the quality is terrible, and if we do not want to compromise the quality, then it is just unaffordable for us!” she exclaimed.
The district government officials said that managing Sunday bazaar on such a large scale was not easy. However, they affirmed that the price and food quality issue would be resolved soon.
