Prices of rice
Photo: Tanvir Ahmed / driknews
While I was browsing some Bangla dailies on Aug 2, I found a headline reading "Khaleda demands Tk.10/- per Kg rice during the month of Ramadan for the people. This call from a popular and a compassionate leader like her has got wide media coverage. I believe people of Bangladesh must have been very happy to see her compassion for them. I also thank her for her sympathy to the people during the fasting month and also her religious feelings. My thanks to her are pre-judged and may not hold good if her call is not found genuine and has not been done out of real feelings for the people. The world has changed a lot. The people of Bangladesh have also acquired a lot of knowledge on politics, democracy, election and their rights as a citizen. Old thoughts and old words are not workable any more in the Bangladesh market. Now the politicians should speak something from ground reality. I think, Begum Zia has not done that. Before making this demand, I believe, she did not survey the ground and possibility of her demand being fulfilled by any government. Let me a give a brief survey. I have lot of relatives and old friends who are directly involved in agriculture. May be the BNP men are not well aware about the present situation but my relatives who are directly involved in growing rice and other agricultural products know very well the cost involved in producing a kilogram of rice in rural Bangladesh. A day labourer costs Tk.150.00 to 200 per day. Then come irrigation, fertilizers, ploughing, carrying, husking and marketing. According to them, a kilogram of grain before husking costs the farmer Tk.16/- to 18/- and a complete kilo of coarse variety of rice at the mill gate costs taka 20/- plus. Let us forget about the imported ones, a miller cannot sell his rice at less than taka 21/- per kg . So, according to my judgement she has not put her demand out of feelings for the people, she has put it simply for politics. Now I have a good suggestion for her to earn people's support.
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