KARACHI, Oct 31: Exorbitant entry fees, rent for the space and high prices of basic commodities, especially that of water, continue to perturb traders at the army-run cattle market off the Superhighway, a visit to the market on Monday showed.

The situation, according to animal traders, was disturbing particularly for the majority of those who had brought a rather smaller number of animals and were often compelled to settle for a low price as they couldn’t afford to take their animals back home.

“People ask me why the animals are so expensive and I tell them it’s the mandi administration which is to blame for the high animal prices,” said a goat trader.

Traders said the market administration, like previous years, had increased entry fees on animals as well as the rent for the space allotted to an individual either to keep his animals or to sell any product and the parking fee. Subsequently, the cost of food, fodder, tents to keep animals under and electricity supply had also gone up many times.

“After bearing so many expenses, don’t we even deserve to get water for free?” remarked a trader.

Around 200,000 animals (140,000 big and 60,000 small animals) have so far been brought to the market, held every year under the supervision of what is called the station headquarters, Malir Cantonment, though the land where the market is held is outside the cantonment jurisdiction and reportedly belongs to individuals.

Every year, the market run through a market administrator and a number of contractors for the arrangement of water, fodder, electricity supplies and tents attracts thousands of traders and fetches a sizeable amount of money under different heads.

For instance, this year the administration is charging Rs500 and Rs800 per small and big animal, respectively, as the entry fee. Rs1,000 to Rs3,000 is charged depending on the size of the vehicle used for transporting the animals. The space for a VIP stall is offered for Rs85,000 (50 in total) while the space for a dozen VIP stalls costs Rs100,000 each. Those who cannot afford a VIP stall keep their animals in the open, or under a tent if they can afford it.

Many traders who have paid Rs25,000 as a rent for a piece of land said that they had not been issued any receipt for the payment while others said that they had promised to make the payment once their animals were sold.

The situation at the market is more worrisome for those who have come from the flood-affected areas as they have not been helped by the authorities in any way after they suffered losses and incurred expenses on the animals they could save and brought to Karachi hoping to make some money.

“Our major worry is water as we need it in plenty to keep animals in a better shape. A can for water is being sold here at Rs40 to Rs50. So, I daily spend Rs800 on account of water alone,” said Mohammad Bakhsh, who had come to the market from Kandhkot.

Speaking to Dawn, Shahab Ali, the market administrator, claimed that water was being supplied to the stalls for free, or at a nominal cost in some cases.

“More than 100 tanker trips are supplied to the market daily for free. Besides, we have also put up signboards to inform people that a litre of water is available for 30 paisas, for which they should contact us.”

The problem, he said, was with animal keepers who wasted too much of water. Answering a question about the high charges, he said the administration would look into the issue but one should see that a lot of money had been invested to provide “better services” to traders and that “obviously requires money”.

“Traders have forgotten the days when they were forced to pay extortion money by the police at the market and there was a complete lawlessness. It’s unfortunate that traders avoid sharing positive aspects of the market. For instance, we never have had an electricity breakdown here.

“The market is completely linked to electricity produced by generators, which run on costly fuel,” he said, adding that no payments were received without proper receipts.