Allegations have been raised about selling of fair-priced rice for the ultra poor in the black market by dishonest dealers getting patronization from a section of ruling party leaders in different parts of the country.
The social safety net scheme recently taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, where rice is sold at Tk 10 per kilogram, has been facing a set back due to alleged relaxed mood of Food Ministry.
Police have already seized several tonnes of rice in different areas of the country and arrested dozens of dealers in connection with the black marketing. Besides, the concerned district administrations have also cancelled several dealerships for this reason.
“We’re getting allegations of black marketing from different areas… But none
will be spared. We’ve already issued directives to the Deputy Commissioners and UNOs to check the occurrences,” Food Minister Kamrul Islam told The New Nation on Tuesday.
In the latest incident, police arrested Awami League leader Pulin Chandra Roy and recovered eight sacks of fair-priced rice raiding his residence at Goaldihi union under Khansama upazila in Dinajpur district on Tuesday. He is the president of Awami League Ward no-5 unit and authorized rice dealer.
In another incident, police arrested a dealer and ruling party leader Ashraf Faruki Rukon and seized 97 rice sacks from Hajipur Bazar in Sadar upazila of Jamalpur district on Tuesday.
Confirming the incident, Additional Superintendent of Police in Jamalpur Rasel Sabrin said on secret information a team of police and local administration conducted a raid in the area and arrested the dealer Rukon.
This is not an end! There are several incidents where local leaders and activists of ruling party are involved in the black marketing, or stocking. Significantly, most of the dealers have been appointed by the concerned ministry who are leaders and activists of ruling party or its associate organizations.
On Sunday, the authorities cancelled dealership and also forfeited security money of local Awami League Joint Secretary Abdus Salam, who is also former union parishad member of Failjana union under Chatmohar upazila in Pabna district, for black marketing of fair-priced rice.
Although the government has set up a policy with preparing a list of “poor persons” to distribute the rice through the selected dealers, in most cases the dealers have been appointed by local lawmakers and upazila parishad chairmen by flouting regulations.
Against this backdrop, Food Minister Kamrul Islam further said: “We’ll not tolerate anyone who is involved in the black marketing, whether he is AL, Jubo League or member of any other ruling party’s front.”
Officials concerned said that government is giving Tk 27 as subsidy in one kilogram of rice to accomplish the highly ambitious project, when the price of one kilogram is Tk 35-40 in the open market.
When contacted, Shaoli Sumon, Additional Secretary [planning and development] of Food Ministry, told The New Nation on Tuesday night: “Yes, we’ve got a lot of complaints about selling of the rice in the black market. We’ll go for action after scrutinizing the complaints.”
Do you know ruling party men are mostly involved in these incidents? Shaoli Sumon said: “It is not possible to make successful any big programme without involving ruling party men… So far as I think, it needs consciousness of all to avoid such misdeeds.”
It is leant that, the local influential and affluent people’s name have also been included in the list of “poor persons” in different areas. Not only that, in several areas the deprived persons have staged demonstrations protesting the irregularities in distributing rice.
Though unbelievable, in many areas the dealers are not selling rice weighing through digital scale, rather they are using buckets. In some areas, the poor persons received sacks of 28/29 kilograms, instead of 50-kilogram sacks.
Police arrested two persons along with 83 sacks of rice [each 50 kilograms] on Thursday night on charge of selling it at Tk 18 per kilogram at Titas upazila in Comilla.
It is to be noted that, the programme “Sheikh Hasinar Bangladesh, Khudha hobe Niruddesh” [Hunger to vanish in Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh] is aimed at making rice available at a very low price for the ultra poors.
On September 7, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the programme in Kurigram’s Chilmari to sell rice at Tk 10 per kilogram to 50 lakh poor families in the country’s 64 districts.
