The government on Wednesday launched Open Market Sales of rice and flour at the secretariat to shield its low-income employees from the pressure of rising food prices.
The OMS began at the administrative hub two weeks after the OMS programme across the country, except in Dhaka and its adjacent areas, was closed at the end of May.
The government move came after repeated appeals from the Class IV and Class III employees for providing them with rice and flour at subsidised rates.
'The OMS of rice across the country had cushioned the low-income people from soaring prices of the staple. We launched the OMS operation in December when the rice prices rose abnormally,' food and disaster management minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said while inaugurating the OMS outlet at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said the poor had been able to buy rice at Tk 24 a kilogram in both urban and rural areas from the OMS outlets when the price of coarse rice reached Tk 38-40 a kilo.
The coarse rice is now selling at Tk 32-33 per kg, despite this year's bumper boro production, said officials.
'We have distributed around 77 lakh fair price cards among the poor and low-income government employees to make the staple available for them at a cheap rate as well as to rein in the price hike,' the minister said.
The Bangladesh Secretariat Employees' Multipurpose Welfare Association has been tasked with running the OMS outlet, which will remain open from 9:00am to 5:00pm five days a week. One person will be allowed to buy a maximum of five kilograms of rice at Tk 24 per kg and three kilograms of flour at Tk 20 per kilo.
The government revived the OMS of rice in the capital on December 26, 2010 in the face of rice price spiral and later expanded the programme to all other districts down to the union level. The OMS coverage, however, became limited to some specific areas in Dhaka and its adjacent areas in May as the rice price began to ease.
source:New Age
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