Provincial Minister for Industries and Commerce Mian Aslam Iqbal has said that provision of food items to people at fixed rates is top priority of the government. He expressed these views while addressing a meeting at the DC office here to review the availability and prices of food items. Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) Punjab for Trade and Investment Chaudhry Ahsan Saleem Baryar, Deputy Commissioner Sialkot Tahir Farooq, Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Farooq Akmal, Assistant Commissioner (AC) Sialkot Sonia Sadaf and DO Industry Rashida Batol besides local officials of Food and Market Committees also present on the occasion. The minister said that the government machinery had been fully mobilised to curb artificial price-hike. He said that the strategies had been formulated to make the price control mechanism more effective at the district level. The provincial minister said that the performance of the districts in terms of price control was being monitored. He said that the food items were available at discounted and controlled rates in 300 Sahulat Bazaars across the province where an average of one lakh people come for shopping every day. As many as 115 farmer platforms are functional in the markets while 10 farmer platforms have also been set up in the model bazaars, he added. Mian Aslam Iqbal said that the sale of imported sugar at Rs90 per kg in local shops, Sahulat and Model Bazaars and availability in abundance was being ensured. “The common man has a right to subsidy and we will give him this right at all costs,” he added. Deputy Commissioner Sialkot Tahir Farooq briefed the minister. He said he inspected the supply and demand of vegetables and fruits in the central vegetable and fruit markets daily in the morning and monitors the auction process. He said that the price control magistrates had conducted a total of 8,212 inspections this month and illegal profiteers were fined a total of Rs2,216,300 while 56 cases were registered under the Price Act and 69 persons were arrested. He said that in the constituencies of 33 special price magistrates in the district, 3,483 complaints were received from the public on the android mobile phone app “Qeemat Punjab”. All the complaints had been addressed while five complaints were in process. APP