Bangladesh: Government launches drives against rice price hike

The food ministry on Thursday launched drives to contain rice price hike as the prices of the staple grain went up suddenly after the January 7 general election.Four teams of the ministry conducted the drives in different areas of Dhaka city and warned businessmen not to take high price of rice from consumers.They also checked the documents and purchasing invoices and asked rice traders to display price charts in stores. The drive, however, was seen having lacklustre effects while visiting a spot during a campaign, led by the ministry’s deputy secretary Srabasti Roy in the capital’s Malibagh area.No one was fined in the drive while Srabasti Roy just warned the traders for displaying price charts.Messrs Tangail Rice, a shop at Malibagh bazar, was found not displaying the price charts properly, and no purchasing invoice in the shop.The shop proprietor Md Humayun Kabir Khan told the food ministry team that he left the purchasing invoice at his house.Srabasti Roy told New Age that ...