HYDERABAD, Oct 14: DCO Mohammad Hussain Syed has said that hoarding and black-marketing of commodities of daily use will not be allowed during Ramazan; and warned that legal action will be taken against hoarders and black-marketers.

He was speaking at a meeting held at the Shahbaz Hall here on Wednesday to devise a strategy to control prices of essential commodities during the month. The DCO advised traders and shopkeepers to sell commodities of daily use on low profit so that poor people could easily purchase them.

He directed the stock holders and wholesalers to declare their stock to the administration and asked the EDO of revenue department to hold meetings with the representatives of various suppliers to fix rates of the commodities.

He directed that price lists should be prominently displayed in shops and added that shortage of daily use commodities would not be allowed at any cost and those indulging in hoarding and profiteering would be punished.

The DCO established a monitoring cell at taluka level headed by the taluka nazim and authorities concerned to check the prices. He said that price list of daily use items would be issued on daily basis.

The DCO was informed that 50 stalls had been established to sell flour on control price and it had been assured that there would be no shortage of daily use items.

Speaking on the occasion, Hyderabad City Nazim Haji Moinuddin Shaikh advised the butchers not to sell mutton/beef on carts but in the market because unhygienic conditions created diseases among the consumers. The meeting was attended by the officers concerned and representatives of trade bodies of daily use items.

SSGC: The managing director of the Sui Southern Gas Company, Dr Munawar Baseer Ahmed, on Tuesday constituted an advisory board headed by him and comprising senior company officials and industrialists to resolve the day-to-day problems of industrial units.

He was speaking at a reception hosted in his honour by the Kotri Association of Trade and Industry. He said the industrial sector was the backbone of country's economy therefore the SSGC had decided to setup business and customer facilitation centres to provide maximum facilities to industrial units.

He said such a centre had already been established in the Korangi industrial area in Karachi and the second would be set up in the Kotri industrial area. He said the government was giving a top priority to exporting units with a view to earning maximum foreign exchange for the country.

He said the exporting units would be provided gas connections on priority basis if recommended by the Export Promotion Bureau and the Board of Investment. He said the other productive units would also be given preference for providing gas supply.

He said for that reason not a single application of an industrial unit for gas connection was pending with the company. Mr Ahmed said the industrialists of Punjab were performing a positive role in the development of their areas and urged the industrialists of Sindh to emulate their counterparts in Punjab.

He said the SSGC management had spent Rs15 million in Karachi, Ziarat and Badin to provide educational facilities to local people. He said the company would also spend an equal amount on the development of other deprived areas in the province. He assured the industrialists that expansion would be carried out in the existing gas lines to eliminate complaints bout low pressure.