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Restaurants in Dinajpur slash use of onion
Kongkon Karmaker, Dinajpur
Amid a rise in onion prices, the use of the cooking ingredient has dropped significantly in the restaurants in Dinajpur.
Traders said they had been seeing poor sales of onion for more than a month, as the spice had gone beyond the reach of most of the customers.
In the town’s kitchen markets, a kg of the bulb was being sold at Tk 250 on Monday, while onion-leaf was selling at Tk 60 a kg in wholesale markets, reports our Dinajpur correspondent.
Sambhunath Das, a wholesaler at Bahadur Bazar, said his daily sale of the bulbs dropped down to 200kg from a tonne in the span of several weeks.
Talking to the correspondent, several restaurant owners said the high price of the spice prompted them to use less of it in their dishes. Otherwise, they would not be able to sell the dishes at affordable prices.
Mohammad Rustom, owner of Rustom Hotel in Nimtola area, said he started buying five kgs of onion against a regular demand of 25 kg per day.
“We cannot charge our customers extra for using the right amount of onions in dishes,” he said.
Besides, many restaurants stopped serving their customers sliced onion in free salads.
“We stopped serving onions in free salads since the price crossed Tk 150 a kg,” said Goni Mia, owner of a small restaurant in Bahadur Bazar.
They also started using only a kilo of the bulbs against a demand of seven kgs per day. “I used to spend Tk 200 for onions every day. Now for only a kg, it costs me Tk 250.”
Many eateries have also stopped using the spice to cook traditional omelettes. Piyaju (a dish requiring lots of onions to cook) is not being sold for a long time now, he said.
Officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Dinajpur said the situation would improve when the locally produced onion started arriving at markets.
Touhidul Islam, deputy director of the department, said it would take at least 15 days to start harvesting the bulbs.
Photo: Rashed Shumon

Commissioner
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expelled from the viva voce exam.
EC Secretary Alamgir told a meeting on November 14 that the appointment and financial issues were outside the purview of the commission, he said.
“The chief election commissioner [KM Nurul Huda] supported the secretary’s statement at the meeting.”
As usual, all election commissioners sent an unofficial (UO) note to the CEC on Sunday, seeking information on the functions of the secretariat and the purview of the commissioners regarding the functions, Mahbub said.
In the note, four commissioners Mahbub, Rafiqul Islam, Kabita Khanam, and Brig Gen (retd) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury requested the CEC to take effective measures in this regard and inform them.
“The activities of the constitutional body [Election Commission] is now in question due to internal irregularities,” Mahbub said, adding that the EC secretariat was not accountable for its activities in some cases, but the commission had to shoulder the responsibilities in almost all the cases.
He said it is necessary to strictly follow the constitution, Representation of the People Order-1972, Election Commission Secretariat Act-2009 and the related rules to end such an unexpected situation.
“It’s not possible to hold a fair election without coordination between the Election Commission and the Election Commission Secretariat,” Mahbub observed.
SECRETARY DENIES ALLEGATIONS
Talking to reporters, EC Secretary Alamgir said his office was readying a “status paper” in detail on the recruitment process and the answer to the UO note to be submitted to the CEC.
Denying the allegation that there was “arbitrariness” in running the EC secretariat, he said they were going by related laws and rules. “I heard such an allegation for the first time.”
“One can complain about an arbitrary attitude if we don’t follow their [commissioners’] instructions.”
He said the state’s executive, judiciary and legislative branches have separate functions. “You can call it an interference if the judiciary interferes in other division’s activities and vice versa.”
Citing different laws and rules, Alamgir reiterated that the EC secretariat was bound to inform and obey the orders of all the commissioners only in election-related issues.
He said the EC secretariat did not require the commission’s approval for issues except elections, and the secretariat took steps on those issues upon approval of the CEC.
“But we have to provide information to the election commissioners if they ask for any.”
Alamgir said there was no chance of any irregularities in the appointment process as everything was done properly according to related laws and rules.