Rural areas also to be brought under OMS
Says Razzaque
Assuring the nation of adequate food supply, Food Minister Abdur Razzaque yesterday said the government has now stock of 11.15 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat.
Around nine lakh tonnes of rice and wheat are in the godowns and over two lakh tonnes are at Chittagong port.
Another consignment of 2.5 lakh tonnes of rice from Vietnam will reach the Chittagong port by March 30. Besidesf, L/C was opened yesterday for importing two lakh metric tonnes of rice from Thailand.
Dr Razzaque informed the reporters of the satisfactory food stock after a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) at the planning ministry. LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Agriculture Minister Begum Matia Chowdhury, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, and Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen attended the meeting.
The minister said Open Market Sale (OMS) will be expended to all unions, Dhaka City, industrial belts of Tongi, Savar, and Narayanganj.
The rice price is expected to come down to Tk 30 kg before the boro comes to the market, from which the farmers expect to reap a bumper crop in about six weeks.
"We'll be able to supply food in any situation as we have sufficient stock for keeping the market under control as well as to keep it within the purchasing capacity of low income group before the boro harvest," said Dr Razzak.
Dr Razzaque said OMS will be expanded in rural areas. From yesterday rice supply is being increased to two tonnes from 1.5 tonnes to each union for sale at two points at subsidised price.
The number of trucks for OMS will be increased from today to 300 from 250 in Dhaka City. Similarly, 15 additional OMS rice carrying trucks will sell rice each at Tongi and Savar and 10 at Narayanganj.
The food minister informed that the OMS will continue till April 30. Besides, operation of fair price card has already started to provide rice and wheat to some 67 lakh families at subsidized price.
He said that the meeting decided not to procure wheat from local market this year. “If needed we will procure wheat from abroad.”
He said that Ukraine would give Bangladesh 5 to 10 lakh tonnes of wheat per year according to the country's demand. They are now ready to give 1 to 2 lakh tonnes of wheat. Agriculture Minister of Ukraine will come to Dhaka shortly to sign a MoU in this regard.
Asked about the progress of procurement of rice from India, the Food Minister said that there are some legal complications.
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