Pokhara, March 25

A market monitoring team led by a Gandaki Province minister checked the market price and availability of daily essentials during the lockdown in Pokhara today.

The monitoring team, including Chief District Officer Gyan Prasad Dhakal and Minister of Tourism, Industry, Forest and Environment Bikask Lamsal, inspected the agriculture market and milk selling outlet at Prithivi Chowk today. During inspection, Minister Lamsal said the government had not banned supply of daily essentials and requested traders and suppliers to continue selling daily essentials in the market. He further urged them to help consumers and the government by easing the supply of daily essentials during this time of global crisis.

CDO Dhakal said the market monitoring team had taken information about vegetables and fruits stock. He informed that vegetables and fruits were sufficient. Shopkeepers complained that they had been facing problems importing these items during the lockdown. They said the problems mainly occurred on the border areas.

They also requested extension of time duration for selling the goods.

Consumers Forum Gandaki Chairman Kapil Nath Koirala said suppliers and shopkeepers were worried they would have to bear huge loss if their vegetables and fruits were not sold on time. He also said there was no problem with wholesale price of daily essentials but retail price had increased by almost three times the normal price.

The team also took information about the price of milk. Koirala said they would also monitor dealers of cooking gas as there was a scarcity of LPG in the market.