As the price of onion skyrocketed in the kitchen markets raising its value at Tk. 250-Tk. 260 per kilogram, a huge amount of rotten onions were found dumped in the Chaktai canal of Khatunganj in Chattogram city on Saturday. Locals said almost everyday a large number of rotten onions were being dumped there which had been stored by wholesalers with an ill intention to make unusual hefty profit. At least 15 to 16 tons of rotten onions were dumped in the Chaktai canal, which were reportedly imported from Myanmar. However, onion prices kept breaking records even yesterday triggering outrage among consumers.
The Chaktai incident has proved — a section of unscrupulous traders are taking advantage of lax monitoring by the government and pushing up the prices of this key cooking ingredient. Meanwhile, government has announced that the first shipment of onions from Egypt is expected to arrive in Dhaka on Tuesday through a cargo plane. A local business house is importing the onions in its first shipment. Moreover, some other traders have also completed necessary formalities for importing onion from different countries, including Afghanistan and the UAE.
The mobile courts have fined several traders who stocked or sold onions at higher prices in different parts of the country, including Khatunganj in Chattogram and Shyampur in Dhaka, in a bid to control its prices in retail markets. But now we see that, all efforts of the government went in vain. Though the hoarders are mainly responsible for increasing the price of onion than the climate change and production shortage, the government failed to take any stringent measures against them. The greedy businessmen who stockpiled tons of onion to make extra profit, now started to dump it. We are very much doubtful whether there is any effective administrative system in this country. It’s a big question, how a large amount of onion could be stockpiled dodging the surveillance of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Who are controlling the market from behind the scene to create an abnormal situation?
Learn to blame the chaos and incompetence of the authority concerned than finding fault with the traders for the short supply of the onions. When the government does not admit of its own incompetence then it is futile to expect any improvement in functioning of the government. Now it has reached a stage when the people cannot see any hope but to suffer miseries from the helplessness of the insensitive government. The lies supplied by the unscrupulous bureaucrats who take pride that they are the power behind the government.
