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Onion of discord

Consumers in 8 northern districts are deprived of 'fair price' as TCB, dealers at loggerheads

EAM Asaduzzaman, Nilphamari
Consumers in eight northern districts are deprived of 'fair priced1 onion imported by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) as listed dealers are unwilling to draw onion from governmentgodowns.
The dealers alleged that unreasonable conditions imposed by TCB authorities make them incur loss.
A kg of onion is now selling in open markets atTk 70-Tk 75 in the area.
The government decided to import onion from India and other countries and sell them in open markets to contain onion prices prior to Eid-ul-Azha.
From September to first week of October, regional office of TCB in Rangpur received only 48 tonnes of imported onions in three phases to distribute in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhaat, Thakurgaon, Panchgarh and Nilphamari districts, sources said.
Due to poor availability, regional TCB arranged selling of onion atTk 55 per kg in the eight district towns only, instead of supplying it to 58 upazilas under the division.
For this, TCB selected only 19 dealers out of total 346 and a dealer was given allotment of 300-400 kg, three times each.
One of the selected dealers Satyendra Nath Roy, 35, owner of Ovi Enterprise in Nilphamari, said, “I drew 400 kg of onion only once. After spending a good amount as cost for transportation and others to take it
to Nilphamari, I found that a portion of the onion was rotten. As 1 incurred loss, I did not, feel like drawing onion and other items although TCB allocated them thrice for me by this time."
Another TCB dealer of the region Rahmatullah Ruhul, owner of Messers Abdul Mannan said that as condition of receiving the small quantity of allotted onion, authorities compelled the dealers to receive other items like sugar, soybean oil and lentil but the items are of poor quality and prices higher than that in the open market.
A number of TCB dealers of different districts on condition of anonymity alleged that a group of Rangpur based traders with the help of a section of offi-
cials create situation to discourage genuine dealers to draw TCB supplied goods like imported onion and others.
This is done to sell the items for high prices later, they said.
Sujauddoula Sarkar, executive officer of Rangpur regional office of TCB, said, "Dealers were given allotment of imported onion in proportionate to availability and they were not intentionally given small allotment. TCB deals with onions as well as different essential commodities, which dealers must draw as a package according to rule."
He, however, admitted that a portion of the onion might have been rotten as TCB has no cold storage and the item could not be preserved more than three days.