The government yesterday launched again the open market sale (OMS) of rice in fair price targeting low and middle income people in view of slight rise of the price of the staple food, a trend attributed to protracted downpour and deluge in recent months.
“We have asked the food department to resume the countrywide OMS of rice from today like before . . . the programme was suspended five months ago, on May 24 this year,” a food ministry spokesman told BSS.
He added that the order was issued two days ago in view of a current trend of price hike of rice in market due to deluge in parts of the country and protracted monsoon this year.
Another official familiar with the development said the food department warehouses should also be emptied to store fresh procured grains ahead of the coming harvesting season, a situation which also was partly prompted the government launch the OMS from own stocks.
The officials said under the decision the food department would sale course variety of rice for the low income people across the country allocating a total of nearly 97,000 tonnes of rice for the current phase of the programme.
“We already launched the programme sporadically allover the country and we have to wait for some days to know the feedback of the programme,” director-general of food Fayez Ahmed told BSS.
Ahmed said his office already appointed 3,129 dealers across the country to carry out the OMS and “each of the dealers will get area-wise at least 1-3 tonnes of rice to be sold onboard trucks everyday”.
“One kilogram rice will cost Taka 24 and one person can buy maximum 5 kilograms of rice in a day,” he said.
Food officials said 90 dealers were engaged to sell 270 tonnes of rice per day in Dhaka city alone while the OMS allocation for the capital was 7,020 tonnes.
