The government of Punjab has subsidized edibles, especially those that are commonly used in the month of Ramzan, for the consumers to purchase them at a low price. The subsidy sanctioned by the government in this regard is worth 9.35 billion rupees. Despite the relief that the government intends to extend to the people, due to the incapability of the Industries, Prices, Weights and Measures (IPWM) Department to measure the weight of the goods that are being supplied in the market, most of the subsidy appears to be providing no respite to the people at all. The IPWM also lacks the technical staff to measure the weight correctly.
It is important to note that in the Ramzan bazaars, set up by government, the peons of the IPWM supervise the proceedings there.
According to sources, the salesmen in the Ramzan bazaars are indulged in misappropriation, but they get away with it because the staff of the IPWM is unable to take action against them. It has come to the attention of this scribe that the hundreds of millions of rupees are allocated to the department, yet its performance remains abysmal to date. Also, for a province like Punjab that has a population of 103 million the strength of staff in the department is only 431 employees. Even from the designated seats, almost 80 remain unoccupied.
330 Ramzan bazaars have been setup in the province out of which 25 are model bazaars. In the 9 divisions of Lahore 31 Ramzan bazaars have been setup and in each of these bazaars an employee of the IPWM has been assigned so that he may keep a check and balance on the activities of the salesmen and buyers there. According to sources, these employees have failed to perform effectively because they lack the expertise required to handle misappropriation.
The IPWM has failed to keep any sort of check and balance on the Ramzan bazaars due to which there is rampant hoarding and overpricing there.