Staff Reporter :
The government has decided to operate special drives against the illegal food grain hoarders due to the volatility in the rice and Atta market during full season of Boro harvesting.
To operate the drives, the Food Ministry on Tuesday formed eight separate teams incorporating its senior officials, deputy commissioners (DCs) and upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs) of all districts and upazila, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Department of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP).
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Food and the Directorate General of Food have launched drive against hoarders to curb the volatile rice market just 24 hours after directives given by the
Prime Minister on Monday.
A special team led by Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Food Harun Or Rashid raided city’s Babu Bazaar rice warehouse around 4:15 pm on Tuesday.
Most of the shops closed and the shopkeepers left their establishments after the Food Ministry team raided Babu Bazaar.
The mobile team officials said that their main purpose of the operation is not to impose fines, but to ensure whether the food license is right or not and to look after whether anyone is storing paddy and rice breaching the rules.
However, the Food Mnistry has already on Tuesday informed about the decisions sending a demi-official (DO) letter to the DCs and UNOs of all districts and upazila, and authorities of RAB and DNCRP and for operating special drives against the illegal hoarders.
Meanwhile, a control room has been opened in the ministry. It has urged the people to inform the ministry about illegal food grain hoarders in its control room telephone numbers of 022233802113, 01790499942 and 01713003506.
Ministry’s Public Relation Officer (PRO) Kamal Hossain told this correspondent the decisions were taken in a meeting held at the Food Ministry on Tuesday with Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder in the chair.
Ministry’s Acting Secretary, Additional Secretaries, Director General of DG Food authority and other senior officials attended the meeting.
According to the meeting decision, the members of the eight teams will observe the overall situation and monitor that whether anyone is trying to create artificial crisis by stocking food grain in their godowns. They will also look into the matters in case of necessities of taking legal actions against the stockers.
The meeting also asked the officials concerned to arrange a coordinated meeting of the officials of the ministries of Food, Commerce and Agriculture as soon as possible.
According to the Food Ministry officials, the decision was taken considering the overall food grain market situation during the full season of Boro harvesting.
Though the farmers have started harvesting Boro crops from mid-April, new Boro rice is not yet available in the market. The rice millers and traders have been marketing rice from their old stocks.
In this situation, the government is trying to know the reasons of increasing rice price. If they found any allegations of illegal hoarding of rice in the stocks of anyone, legal actions will be taken against them even if they are the supporters of the ruling party.
According to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) statement, fine rice per kg was sold at Tk60 to Tk70 on Tuesday which was sold at Tk56 to Tk68 in last week. Around 1.56 percent of price hiked within a week. The rice was sold at Tk56 to Tk65 during the same period in last year.
