People gasp for relief as prices of essentials rocket

Jana Udyog, Barnali and Save Chittagong form a human chain in front of Chittagong Press Club on Saturday demanding intensified anti-adulteration drives in the port city. PHOTO: STAR

To check the price hike during the holy month of Ramadan, the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and Trade Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) started selling some of the daily commodities at reasonable price at different points in the city.

But, goods they sell are quite inadequate compared to the huge demand of the over 33 lakh city dwellers.

As such, the situation marked a very little improvement and the sky-high prices of daily commodities remain almost unchanged at city's kitchen markets.

BDR started selling beef, gram, pulse, sugar through its centres of "BDR Enterprise" at different busy spots in the city one week ahead of the Ramadan.

The BDR Enterprise centres sell beef per KG at Tk 160 (without bone) and Tk 135 (with bones) against the market price of Tk 200 and Tk 160, gram at Tk 55 against Tk 62 to Tk 65 in the market, pulse at Tk 44 and sugar at Tk 40 against Tk 58 and Tk 44 per KG in the local markets.

People are seen collecting the items from the spots standing in long queue at the sale centres everyday.

A BDR official said they got trade licence for BDR enterprise to reach essentials to the consumers at a reasonable price and a consultant was also engaged in this regard.

Actually BDR was not considering the traders as rivals, he said.

The paramilitary force is up with enterprise so that the businessmen, who come in the market targeting the holy month of Ramadan and charge additional price, doesn't have scope to exercise the bad practice, said the BDR official preferring anonymity.

The items are bought from the wholesalers and sold at the BDR enterprise sale centres without making any profit, he added.

Meanwhile, TCB with a view to checking the price hike started selling essentials on trucks at 34 points from September 19.

It sells gram per KG at Tk 57, pulse at Tk 57, sugar at Tk 38, onion at Tk 14 and Soybean oil at Tk 55.

Besides, TCB sells these items through some 40 dealers referred by the district food controller's office.

Buying essentials from TCB, however, is a bit difficult as the trucks carrying the goods keep moving and sell the goods at different spots by rotation, which the consumers can hardly follow.

Meanwhile, the traders have kept the price of these essentials almost unchanged as most of the city dwellers can't buy goods from TCB and BDR .

On the other hand, prices of vegetables keep on soaring with per KG of brinjal selling at Tk 30, potato at Tk 22, tomato at Tk 60 and khira at Tk 24 to Tk 28 despite adequate supply of these items.

The situation of fish market is also sufficient to make one up set. There is hardly any fish that could be available for less than Tk 100 per KG.