Staff Reporter :
Despite different initiatives taken by the government, prices of all kinds of rice are still high across the country adding to woes of the consumers during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Vendors alleged that prices of the rice have increased due to manipulation of the mill owners and the wholesalers.
As part of the government’s measures, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder held a meeting with the traders and mill owners through video conference recently. After the meeting, the Minister directed all the Divisional Commissioners to supervise the rice markets closely.
He has also directed the Director General of the Food to catagorise rice mills as A, B and C to evaluate the millers.
But no measures have yet brought any success to control the rice markets. As a result, the government has decided to import rice by reducing import duty to keep the rice price stable and to prevent price manipulation.
The Food Minister on Tuesday said that there has been a bumper production of crops this year and farmers are getting fair prices. “If the rice market is destabilised despite this and the millers make delay in supplying rice to government warehouses defying deals with them, the government will import rice, if necessary, by reducing import duty,” Sadhan Chandra said, according to a ministry press release.
