LOW-INCOME people were seen getting involved into fistfights with one another at places in the capital on Wednesday as crisis of food and other essentials deepened with the extending of government holidays by another week. The low-income group people, who live on day to day income, have already been out of work for a week while prices of essential items remained high in the market in the wake of coronavirus crisis. The jobless people are crowding in the streets despite law enforcers are in tight vigilant to maintain social distance to contain the contagions. Disobeying government’s instruction to stay in home, the poor people are coming out to collect relief materials not maintaining physical distance. The poor people are in fear of dying in starvation instead of Coronavirus unless the affluent section of the society comes forward with all-out assistance.
The government has taken the initiative to sell rice at Tk 10 per kg from next Sunday. The government-subsidised shops also asked to sell a kg of flour at Tk 18 against the market price of Tk 30. The amount of rice and flour allotted to be distributed through OMS shops in April will feed 6.24 lakh people with rice and 12.48 lakh people with flour given that they buy 5 kg of the foods each. On Wednesday, the government also initiated the daily sale of three kilograms of rice to 2.3 lakh people at divisional and district towns for three months. The fair-priced shops ran out of their supplies even before noon with dozens of lower-middle and middle-class people turning up there to get sugar, lentil, onion, soybean oil at a subsidized price during the normal time. The daily income of a fifth of 16 crore people in Bangladesh remains less than Tk 200, who cannot afford everyday food intake, minimum housing, healthcare and education.
To help the ultra-poor and marginal-income group people, the government must ensure uninterrupted supply of food and other essentials. Side by side their house rent, electricity and gas bills should be considered for late payment.
