Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin on Sunday visited different Ramazan bazaars, marts and factories and reviewed the prices and quality of essential items.
According to official sources here, the minister reviewed the quality and prices of food items in China Scheme and Sabzazar Ramazan markets and took feedback from the citizens present in the market. Bilal Yasin said that good quality food items at fixed prices were available to citizens in Ramazan bazaars. Increasing the supply of essential commodities helped bring down the prices, and this is a permanent process that would continue, he added. The minister said that the sale of low-cost and quality items was being ensured in the Ramazan bazaars across the province. The food minister also visited leading marts and food factories in Shadman and Gulberg areas where 2 marts were heavily fined for violating laws while huge quantities of substandard oil and spices were discarded on the spot. Bilal Yasin ordered the administration that strict action against adulteration mafia was necessary and all resources must be utilised for this cause. Bilal Yasin said, “Action has been taken on the presence of substandard and expired items in the marts and the administration should ensure that defective, expired and adulterated items are not sold in the markets.” Bilal Yasin said that those playing with the health of innocent people deserve no leniency.
The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has tightened the noose around the suppliers of dead and emaciated chickens in Lahore by placing screening pickets at the entry points of the provincial metropolis. To monitor the ongoing crackdown against vendors selling unhealthy chicken, PFA Director General Muhammad Asim Javaid conducted a visit to meat shops in Tollinton Market here on Sunday.
He said that PFA imposed hefty fines on two meat shops, served warning notices on 12 food business operators (FBOs) and issued improvement notices to two others. Moreover, the authority discarded 61kg of stale meat and 400kg of dead chickens during the operation. The meat safety teams will thoroughly inspect the vehicles transporting chicken flocks to local poultry shops in Lahore to meet the daily consumption. He said that the decision was taken to control the sale and purchase of sick, emaciated and dead chickens meat by following the directions of Punjab Chief Minister. The DG said that the authority took action against FBOs after recovering hundreds of kilograms dead chickens from chicken-carrying vehicles. Furthermore, the butchers had stored expired and malodorous meat in the freezers at meat shops, but the PFA took action by discarding all unhygienic meat in accordance with the Punjab Pure Food Regulations.
