JUNAID YOUSAFZAI
Residents of Mardan expressed their dissatisfaction over abrupt increase in rates of stitching clothes by tailors ahead of Eid and asked the district administration to maintain check and balance on market rates.
According to sources, tailors have increased stitching charges by up to Rs 300 for a single suit.
Noman Khan, a customer told Pakistan Today that tailors used the excuse of disrupted power supply to overcharge customers. He said the prices increased every year because tailors claimed they used generators to for continuous power supply for stitching clothes. ‘I will have to pay Rs 900 for a single suit to a tailor in Wahab Shopping Plaza Mardan’, he said.
‘The district administration should consult tailors before fixing rates for stitching clothes and they should control the rate of materials used in stitching first’, he added,
He said the tailors’ association had fixed Rs 900 for stitching a single suit. He added, ‘However, every tailor has fixed his own prices some even charge Rs 1000 and above.
‘As if charging high prices was not enough, many tailors have regretted customers owing to excessive workload’.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, Muhammad Basit, who owns a tailoring shop on Malakand Road said, ‘Every shop has a limited work load that its keepers can bear’. He added the tailors mostly stop booking orders from new customers a month ahead of Eid so they could stitch the clothes already given to them by their regular customers.
ADC Altaf Ahmad Shiekh told that prices have been imposed by the district administration and they checked various markets daily.
The ADC informed that several complaints have also been received in DC Office to address this issue. Therefore it was imperative to call this meeting and immediately address this issue in public interest. After field survey and detailed discussion, the committee unanimously decided to fix the upper ceiling for rates of three categories in District Mardan as follows:
Category-A Rs 700, Shaheen Market, Wahab Plaza, Gaju Khan Road, Ghareeb Market, category-B Rs 600, Baghdada, Parhoti, Kaskorona, Nowshera road Chato Chowk,and other surrounding areas and Category-C Rs 500, all the rural areas.
Additional deputy commissioner further directed all the assistant commissioners and additional assistant commissioners to ensure the implementation of these rates at all tailoring shops with immediate effect. District administration will keep strict vigilance and no tolerance will be made in case of violations.
