Jaffna magistrate issues directive to curb hoarding

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 January 2007, 22:16 GMT]
Jaffna district magistrate T. Vignarajah ordered Thursday all traders in the Jaffna peninsula to issue receipts for all goods they sell and to display the price list of all goods sold. The magistrate's order comes in the wake of the current acute shortage of essential goods and the rampant black marketing in the Jaffna peninsula, sources from Jaffna said.

The magistrate directed the Government Agent Jaffna and the Divisional Secretaries of the peninsula to implement his order immediately and to submit a preliminary report before February 6, legal sources in Jaffna said.

Magistrate Vignarajah issued the order in response to complaints made by the public that goods shipped to the peninsula by the government are sold at exorbitant prices to the public by private traders.

The magistrate has also called for prompt action by the Price Control Officers and Grama Sevakas attached to Divisional Secretariats to strictly enforce the order issued by him to curb the hoarding and black marketing by private traders in the peninsula, the sources said.

Prices of rice, flour, sugar and lentils rose as the reports of the attack on the ship "Liverpool" used in transporting good to Jaffna reached the traders.

Divisional Secretariats, appraising the local situation directed the Co-operative shops in the peninsula not to sell essential food items during the last three days.

Secretariats decided that essential food items should be supplied only to those who receive relief goods with effect from Friday, in a meeting held Thursday headed by Mr. K. Ganesh, GA Jaffna at his office.

It was also decided in the meeting that the essential food items of rice, flour, sugar and lentils are to be distributed first to persons who had lost their jobs, the internally displaced and the disabled. They may be sold to others depending on the stock available, the officials informed.