Staff Reporter :
People continue to queue up in front of the TCB’s open market points to buy goods at subsidised rates amid soaring commodity prices in the market.
Large gatherings at sales centres, particularity on the open tracks, are also posing risks of spreading Covid-19.
Earlier, the State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) started selling four essential commodities, including onion, at subsidised rates across the country to contain the price spiral of daily essentials in the market. Following a sharp increase in onion price on the market, the commerce ministry took a decision to start open market sales of the product to avoid the reappearance of last year’s price crisis.
Along with onion, TCB started selling sugar, soya bean oil and red lentil at 275 spots in 62 districts of the country.
The state-owned corporation set the price of onion at Tk 30 a kilogram, soya bean oil at Tk 80 a litre, red lentil at Tk 50 a kilogram and sugar at Tk 50 a kg. It started selling the commodities at 40 spots in Dhaka city and 10 spots in Chattogram city.
“Every day, people are queuing up in front of the sales centres to buy goods at subsidised rates as prices of essential commodities are on the rise,” a salesperson in front of the TCB sales centre near the National Press Club, told The New Nation yesterday.
Visiting the sales centre, it has been found that the buyers are predominantly people from the lower and middle-income groups. Driven by their needs, these people are coming to buy these commodities at subsidised rates.
But they did not seen ensuring social distancing while standing in the queue.
Asked about this, a buyer named Shireen Begum said, “I am here to buy commodities at lower rate due to financial hardship. I do not care about coronavirus… I have to care about livelihood of my family.”
Visiting several other sales centres in the capital, it was found the many people crowd there to buy commodities since the morning and salespersons were struggling to deal with the buyers.
