14 held, 45 shops sealed for overcharging

FAISALABAD: Divisional Commissioner Zahid Hussain said that 3.49 million bags of urea and 2.29 million bags of DAP fertilizers were supplied to registered dealers, besides arresting 14 dealers on overcharging in Faisalabad division during the last 4 months. Chairing a meeting on Saturday, he said that out of 3,497,608 bags of Urea fertilizer, 3,369,732 bags were distributed among farmers at government fixed rates while remaining bags would also be sold out on subsidized rates. Similarly, 1,598,104 bags, out of 2,292,246 bags of DAP were sold out so far, whereas, remaining quantity of fertilizers was under distribution process, he added. He said that monitoring teams were fully active across the division to ensure the sale of fertilizers at government fixed rate. In this connection, cases were also registered against 71 fertilizer dealers for overcharging, in addition to arresting 14 accused. Shops of 45 dealers were also sealed, besides imposing a total fine of Rs 4.904 million on profiteers during the same period, he added. Deputy Commissioner Ali Shehzad, Additional Commissioner Coordination Tariq Mehmood, Director Agriculture Chaudhry Abdul Hameed and others were also present in the meeting.