Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The government has decided to expand the open market sale (OMS) of rice by increasing its quantity and also the number of trucks, officials said.
The number of trucks, engaged under the program, will be increased by 50 in the capital. Presently, a total of 200 trucks have been selling OMS rice in the capital Dhaka, five days in a week. From now on, rice will be sold six days a week.
The government will also allocate 0.1 million tons of wheat under test-relief (TR) soon.
The food and disaster management ministry Wednesday took these decisions in a meeting, chaired by Minister Abdur Razzak. The decisions will come into effect from Friday).
The meeting also decided to allow each union-level dealer to sell 1.5 tonnes of OMS rice, from existing 1.0 tonne. However, union-level dealers in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Rangamati, Sylhet, Khulna and Satkhira can sell 2.0 tonnes of rice.
Besides, two dealers will be appointed in each union to run the OMS programme.
The food minister also instructed the officials to monitor the OMS activities closely to help thwart any irregularities.
The ultra-poor and the Class-IV government employees are receiving rice from January-February through fair-price cards.
Currently, the government has 9,02482 tons of food grains in stock, and another 2,18,000 tons are in the pipeline. Food grains stock stood at 7,95,000 tons in 2010.
BBN/SSR/SI-03Mar11-10:50 am (BST)
