Govt aims at big food stock: Chief adviser

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Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday said the government will build up a bigger food stock through import and local procurement in order to ensure food security and keep food prices, especially of rice, at tolerable levels.

Unveiling a package of contingency measures, he said increased allocation for agriculture and employment generation would be high on the list of priorities in next budget to overcome the wayward market situation.

He said there is no food shortages in the country as import of rice has increased at government and private levels in comparison with the previous year. Moreover, the country has had a good harvest of potato and wheat this year.

The chief adviser was talking to reporters at Kalyanpur BRTC bus depot in the city after paying surprise visits to a number of BDR-run fair price outlets.

Fakhruddin told the newsmen that allocation of rice has been increased from government warehouses for the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme in order to keep its prices stable by increasing supply.

“The main objective of the Open Market Sale is to increase supply and provide income support for the low-income groups,” he said.

He said in all 1.20 lakh tonnes of rice have been allocated for the OMS programme in April compared to 42,000 tonnes in last month so that rice prices come down gradually.

Referring to some newspaper reports, he said prices of rice have already started to come down on the wholesale market and hoped that the expected bumper harvest of Boro would have a positive impact on the market.

Noting the important role of the media, he urged the newspeople to play a positive role in keeping the prices of commodities, especially of food, at tolerable levels.

He said the government has decided to increase agricultural production in a bid to keep food prices stable as there is no other alternative to this, adding that the next budget would provide increased allocation for agriculture and related sectors.

Besides, he said the government would expand the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme in a bid to broaden the food-safety net at places where there is seasonal unemployment problem.

On employment generation, the chief adviser said the food ministry has already taken a Tk 100-crore project to that end. The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has got the nod to launch such programmes in a few weeks while the communications ministry would also take similar programmes to provide support for the poor and low-income people.

He said the government is also mulling over growing two major crops within a short span in a year.

On his experience at the BDR-run outlets, Fakhruddin said one of the main problems people face while buying rice from OMS outlets is that they have to spend much time there.

He, however, informed that the BDR would open 25 more outlets next week to ease the problem.

The chief adviser visited BDR outlets at Taltola, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Mirpur- 2 and Kalyanpur.

Most of the people at the outlets asked him to increase OMS rice sale from five kg to 10 kg at an even lower price.

Now one kg rice sells for Tk 25 at BDR shops which also sell salt, potatoes and other essential food items from 8:00am to 5:30pm. Earlier, the government increased the amount of rice under OMS from three kg to five kg.

The chief adviser asked the people to be patient, assuring them that the government would increase the amount of rice and take steps for quick supply of rice to the outlets.

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