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Open sale of rice from Feb 17

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
In a bid to rein in spiralling prices of rice throughout the country, the government is going to start open market sale (OMS) from February 17.
Deputy Minister for Food, Disaster Management and Relief Asadul Habib Dulu yesterday told the Jatiya Sangsad that rice will be sold in the open market across the country through 11,888 dealers.
During the question-answer
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session in the House, a number of ruling BNP lawmakers including Manjur Quader and Nurul Kabir Shahin questioned the minister about reasons for price hike of rice even in the peak season.
The minister said last year's devastating floods led to the shortfall of Aman production which is responsible for high prices of rice.
He said government has no plan to distribute rice through vulnerable group feeding (VGF) cards.
Replying to another question, the minister said government had set a target to collect a total of two lakh tonnes of rice in the current Aman season, but the target could not be achieved due to last year's floods and incessant rain.
"We have collected only three tonnes of paddy so far," he said, adding, "The government has failed to achieve its target as the market prices of rice and paddy are higher than the government's procurement price."
He said there is about 6,15,077 tonnes of food grains in government stocks at present.
BNP lawmaker Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu asked Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury whether the government will take any punitive action against those who are responsible for sudden price hike of essentials.
The commerce minister said government does not control the market in the open market economy.
He, however, said his ministry is going take a number of steps to check price spiralling and protect consumers' rights.
"The process to enact the Consumers Rights Protection Act is underway," he added.