IN order to ensure the provision of essential commodities to the people at their doorsteps in the current situation of lockdown and market closures, the Utility Stores Corporation has come up a very important initiative of mobile service. Currently eight vehicles have been designated for the rural areas of the capital and the Corporation envisages extension of this service to the entire country within two weeks.
Ahead of Ramazan every year, the provincial governments also launch special bazaars to provide essential commodities to the people at reduced rates. However given the challenge posed by Coronavirus, such a setup will not be possible this time as to contain the spread of the contagion there is ban on gatherings with focus on social distancing. In these circumstances, it is the Utility Stores Corporation, which can fill this gap through its vast outreach of four thousand outlets. The launch of mobile service in fact is more important in these testing times as it will facilitate the consumers get essential items at their doorsteps. Especially nobody can deny its importance in the context of rural and far flung areas where people have to travel long distances to purchase essential items. USC Managing Director Umer Lodhi really deserves appreciation for this forward looking approach and we expect the focus of this service should be the Union Councils where the Corporation has no presence. The fact of the matter is that the USC has always proved its value and worth in disaster-like situations but the regrettable part is that in the past it was not given the desired attention and the result was that like many other state enterprises, it also started accumulating losses. When present government came into power, some government officials had suggested closing it down. However, it is a matter of satisfaction that better sense finally prevailed. Everybody saw how the utility outlets helped the government stabilize the prices of essential items in the open market when it was struggling to contain the inflation and secondly in the present situation, it has again emerged as a major platform for the government to extend relief to the masses. We are confident that the current management of the USC with the necessary support of the government will continue to work with the same dedication to put the organization on purely professional lines and turn it into a profitable entity. By adopting latest technology and ensuring quality of products, the USC can easily achieve this task.
