Bangladesh News Desk: Food Friendly Programme (FFP) and Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice began across the country on Thursday to reduce the hardship of low-income people caused by the price hike of daily essentials.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder inaugurated the programme from Azimpur Chapra Mashjid in the capital.
Addressing the launch event, the minister said the FFP and OMS programmes will help stabilise rice prices in the local market.
“Around 3 lakh tonnes of rice will be sold at subsidised rates through the programmes across the country,” he said.
The country has about two million tonnes of food grains in stock while more wheat and rice will be imported in future, he said.
He urged the journalists to monitor the price of rice at mills, wholesale markets and at the retailer level.
“There is no shortage of rice in the country. Action will be taken against anyone trying to make hefty profits from rice. We are strictly monitoring the market,” the minister said.
A huge crowd of people and long queues were seen at the OMS outlet in Azimpur area as many men and women gathered at the sales point to buy rice at a subsidised rate.
The government has increased the number of OMS dealers three times for mitigating public suffering and the number of OMS centres has also been raised to 2363 from 813.
The dealers will sell five kilograms of rice among the card holders issued by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) two times a month at a price of Tk 30 per kg.
People who do not have TCB cards can buy rice by showing their NID.
At the same time, around 50 lakh families will be given 30 kg of rice at Tk 15 rate for the five months from September under the Food Friendly Programme.
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