PHOTO: REUTERS

RAWALPINDI: With residents of the garrison city confined to their homes, barring a short period during the day when they can purchase essentials, many food retailers have seen a sharp decline in demand for their products. Consequently, this drop in demand has driven down prices of good such as milk and poultry.



The prices of milk and yoghurt have fallen by as much as Rs30 in recent days. Prices of poultry too have eased to almost a five-year low at Rs110 per kilogramme.



Mutton prices have dropped by Rs100 to Rs850 and beef has dropped by Rs50 to Rs400, traders said.



The rates of fruit and vegetable have also come down due to waning demand, they said.



Dairy traders, however, claimed that the price cut was voluntary, even though they overcharge government-regulated prices and threaten to strike if asked to sell milk and yoghurt at the controlled rates.



Milk was down from its maximum retail price of Rs110 to Rs80 per litre. Similarly, the prices of yoghurt dropped from Rs170 to Rs90 per kilogramme.



Retail Dairy Shops Committee President Chaudhry Khawar said that prices have been reduced to facilitate people during the lockdown.



He assured that the quality of the milk or yoghurt will not be compromised with the price cut. Khawar, however, said that the discounted prices will remain in place until the Covid-19 crisis is over and the lockdown ends.



Meanwhile, the poultry rates plunged to a five-year low, a representative of the industry told The Express Tribune.



Price of live chicken has dropped by Rs60 per kg. Broiler birds, weighing less than a kilogramme are being sold for Rs85, those weighing more, are being sold at Rs90 per kg. Those tipping the scales at 1.5kg or more are fetching Rs120 per kg or less.



Chicken meat rates have also come down from Rs248 on March 13 to Rs144 on March 27.



Chicken retailer Iqbal Mohammad attributed the downtrend to the closure of high demand businesses such as wedding halls, cooks, major hotels, food streets and barbecue centres.



Diminishing demand has brought down the prices, he said.



Poultry trader Nauroz Khan echoed that, noting that chicken sales have fallen to record lows and poultry farm owners now have excess stock at hand. If they do not clear the inventory, the poultry farmers will continue incurring costs of feeding their growing number of chicken.



Moreover, people do not like plus-size chicken, he said explaining that 1.5kg to 1.75kg was the preferred weight of the bird among the people in general.



Lacking interest



Accustomed to the false promises of the political representatives who merely show up after getting votes and gaining power, the people of Rawalpindi are exasperated on the apathy of the elected representatives who have not made a single appearance to help the needy people during the lockdown amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.



The people of the garrison city have taken the social media websites such as facebook and microblogging website twitter to express the anger they were hanging on and they literally started cursing the disappearing political leaders.



The voters and non-voters are sharing their grievances through their posts, expressing that the same political workers who spend millions of rupees to get into power were now hiding behind the curtain when their voters needed them the most. They expressed that the wealthy vote-seekers must come out from self-inflicted isolation to help unprivileged people particularly those who worked on daily wages as they were finding it hard to provide a living to their families.



Citing the role of different social and religious organisations, the people inquired why the political workers cannot come out to help the destitute people. The angry citizens said that most of the elected representatives had self-quarantined themselves and acting parsimonious as if helping others in difficult times would lessen their wealth.



Criticising the double standards of the public representatives, several social media users wrote that the same people did not give a second thought while spending millions of rupees during their election campaigns. The locals of the garrison city also noted that the elected representatives who had cut-off from their voters would have to pay a heavy cost of what they were doing now in the next elction.



They urged the people, particularly their voters, that they must question their representatives regarding their absence during the difficult time when they would knock their doors once again, asking for votes. Some of the users also predicted that such behavior of the public representatives would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of their politics.



The people warned the representatives to be prepared for facing a strong public reaction when they would expose themselves to the public once the lockdown was over.



Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2020.