Dhaka – The government came to power with the shortage of 26 lakh tones of food grains in 2009 but now it has achieved food sufficiency due to its sincerity and commitment to the people, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said Monday.
“The government now can give ‘free of cost’ rice to its people, but it will create anarchy and huge irregularities in the country. To control the situation, the government has started fair price rice selling in the country with a token price of Tk 10 per kg,” she said while inaugurating the database of around 49.14 lakh fair price rice selling beneficiaries to the website of DG Food.
The Directorate General of Food (DG Food) authority organised the programme to disclose the lists of beneficiaries to its website at its conference room in city’s Abdul Gani Road.
Food Secretary Kaikobad Hossain chaired the programme while Food Minister Qamrul Islam, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food Ministry Abdul Wadud Dara and Director General of Food Department Badrul Hassan also spoke on the occasion.
Matia Chowdhury said, “once the government helped the people through its test relief (TR) and food for work (FFW) programme. But, the people are not interested to work with spade now, because we have now achieved the status of a lower-middle income country.”
“So, the government has started the fair price rice selling programme for five months in a year. The food support will be given during the lean period – from March to April and September to November – in every year to jobless people at Tk 10 per kg,” the agriculture minister said, adding that the initiative has taken up as the Prime Minister thinks about the ‘right to food’ of the people.
A total of 30kg rice is being given to each people per month, she added.
In the programme, the officials concerned informed that the allocation for the running month to continue the fair price programme was already handed over to the dealers. The beneficiaries will be allowed to collect their rice of this month any time they want.
Claiming the fair price rice selling activities of the government as its massive success, Food Minister Qamrul Islam said, “It’s true that there were some mistakes during its initial stage. But now, the mistakes are resolved. If any mistake or irregularities are found in future, those will also be resolved.” – Staff Reporter
