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Fingers pointed at hoarders

Commerce minister under fire for price spiral, PM asks Khosru to visit market himself

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
As prices of essentials continue to soar on the eve of Ramadan, the government yesterday held a set of meetings, one featuring the prime minister, to put a lid on prices blamed mainly on hoarders close to the government.
Highly placed sources said in each meeting Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury came under fire for what they said was 'his failure to control the market'.
Participants in the meetings blamed the ministry for neglect to take adequate steps to stem the tide of prices despite advance report from several government agencies.
They said a government body in a report more than a month ago
tipped off price hikes of onion and asked for urgent steps.
But the report was allegedly leaked to a section of unscrupulous businessmen, who used the information and the government's weak market monitoring to make brisk money.
Sources at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said they came to know that some influential businesspeople, who have close links with the alliance government and control over market, are responsible for the price spiral.
Officials said Prime Minister Khaleda Zia sat with senior cabinet colleagues, including Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman and Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, at her office and asked them to make efforts to contain the prices during Ramadan.
The commerce minister was also present.
Khaleda directed the authorities to bring the wheeler-dealer businesspeople engaged in hoarding essentials to book.
Sources said the premier came down hard on the performance of the commerce minister and asked him to monitor the market himself.
She reminded the commerce minister that his predecessor under the past government monitored market every week and expressed doubt whether Khosru visited kitchen markets once in the past two years, sources said.
Official sources said at a joint meeting at the commerce ministry Khosru asked the home ministry to control markets, a proposal rejected outright by the home ministry.
Home ministry officials said law enforcers would intervene in case of market manipulation only.
The meeting identified extortion apart from hoarding a cause
for price spiral and asked law enforcers to give special attention to key points of import and transport of essential items.
State Minister for Home Lutfuzzaman Babar also had a meeting with Mannan Bhuiyan and discussed price rise and law and order in the month of Ramadan.
Talking to The Daily Star, most ministers held the commerce minister responsible for the market crisis which was eroding the image of the government.
"Instead of managing the market, he is busy with foreign trips," one of them said.
"It was a totally wrong decision to give the important portfolio to a complete businessman. I think the prime minister should correct the wrong," said a key policymaker of the government.