Staff Reporter :
Under the Food Friendly Programme (FFP), the government is going to sell rice at a price of taka 15 per kg from September 1 by raising taka five, targeting 50 lakh families.
Apart from this, the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme will also begin selling essential items on the same day through some 2,013 OMS dealers enlisted by the government across the country.
At least four crore people of 50 lakh families under the FFP will get the facility across the country, which would help to control the rice price in the market.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said while talking to reporters in his secretariat office on Sunday.
He said the rice of FFP will be sold at Tk15 per kg instead of Tk10 this time.
“The programme will run simultaneously in district towns, municipalities and city areas under the FFP of the government,” he added.
The minister hoped that price of rice in the market will come under control through these programmes as people will get adequate supply of rice in the market due to the programmes.
“The internal procurement drive for Boro will be ended in this August. The Aman would be harvested in November. We are hopeful that the bumper Aman will be grown this year. But, we would not be seated for Aman harvest as most people are in trouble for rice price hike. So, the programmes will be started soon to ensure supply of rice at reasonable price,” he added.
The government, usually, sales rice under FFP for five months in a year. The months are- March, April and May and September and October. The months are considered as lean period for the poor and working people.
The consumers of FFP will get 30kg of rice per month at Tk15 per kg, he said, adding that anyone can buy rice at Tk30 per kg from the OMS dealers from September 1. “Each of the OMS buyers will get 5kg of rice at a time.”
He said, “We have 2,013 dealers, each dealer will get two metric tonnes of rice per day.”
In response to a query over the price hike of rice, Minister said that it’s a transitional period of two cropping seasons. Boro season went off and Aman season started. In most places, people have been suffering to plant Aman due to unwanted drought. The people are passing times with fear that would they be able to plant the saplings.
“Same time, transport cost increased due to fuel price hike. Price of imported rice is also higher due high price and transport costs. There is nothing to hide that some greedy traders are also trying to make more profits. We are monitoring everything including the matters of illegal hoarding. The five monitoring committees, which were formed earlier, have been asked to activate again,” he added.
