Prices shooting up
Photo: STAR
We have a department, a ministry, an adviser and above all a powerful government. They have all along informed the people that such and such steps would be taken to control the rise of the prices of daily necessities during Ramadan. The result is opposite . The latest move by the FBCCI has failed, and they are planning to call for the support of the law enforcing agencies like RAB, BDR and police. The success of the new move is doubtful and might create a panic in the mind of the traders having the same result we saw in the early days of the CTG adopting the terrorising strategy. The efforts to neutralise the terror effect on the market and the traders are being continued by the CTG. The FBCCI has perhaps a major role in pursuing such a reconciliatory move by the CTG. Therefore, they should be well aware of the pros and cons of using the tactics of intimidation and force against the wholesale and retail traders as identified by them.. I am a little concerned by the way the news has come in the media that the FBCCI is going to call the law enforcing agencies to control the price spiral at least during holy Ramadan. The FBCCI is perhaps over-stepping their line of responsibility without making a creditable analysis of the market situation. If they have been empowered to call for such assistance, the institutions or offices I have mentioned to start with seem to be either ineffective or non-functional. Cooperation, coordination and sharing responsibility between public and private institutions are welcome in the free market economy; but is Bangladesh with more than half of the population being ignorant and below poverty line fully ready to cope with the so called free market force? The most unfortunate aspect is that we have been bestowed with a group of protagonists of free market economy preparing the poverty alleviation strategy and plan, and ready to live with the fact revealed by a research group that regional disparity of allocation of resources is evident from the records. Higher percentage of resource has been allocated to the comparatively less poverty affected division. The immediate reaction of the government is more disappointing. The FBCCI represents a powerful interest group. If they can operate like an alternate government calling for the assistance of the law enforcing agencies when the reasons of price spiral are not well defined and identified with certainty, the FBCCI might be encouraged to call for support of bigger forces to handle a major crisis which might affect the country and their group interest. I think we are making too many experiments with economy and politics. The country is surely fed up and want to see an end to all the experiments currently undergoing in those two fields.
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