The New Nation - Internet Edition

A.T.M.Nurun Nabi

The river shad (hilsha fish) price has come down to taka 200 per kilo giving an opportunity to the members of the lower income group to bargain but the price of the green chili continues to ride over taka 100 per kilogram on Friday at Khilgaon Taltola Market "Never saw I green chili selling over taka 100 for days together. It is true that the July-August flood damaged standing green chili to a certain extent but the damage is not so much so that it would continue to sell at such a high rate for months," said a teacher of Economics of a college on condition of anonymity, "The ministry of agriculture should have carried a survey to assess the losses and apprise the nation accordingly. The government's indifference to the mater has added extra courage to the traders to fix price beyond economics index."

Brinjal was selling at taka 44, onion shows an upward trend and moves higher to taka 48 and is likely to rise further if the traders know it that India had banned onion export to Bangladesh for a fortnight while biter gourd was selling at taka 32 the same day at the same market Soybean of two liters can (Rupchanda) was selling at taka 170, a rise of taka 10 from last week.

The interesting mater is that the people have gradually become accustomed to high cost of living and that is why they do not like to make it an issue for creating unrest in the society. The cucumber price has decreased substantially to taka 22 per kilo but tomato continues to stay over taka 50. Prices of some other essentials were as under:

Ladies finger taka 24, basil taka 20, calery taka 24, green banana taka 10 by fours, garlic taka 55, ginger taka 60, beef taka 170, climbing fish taka 200, kachki fish taka 120, mola taka 100, salmon (big size) taka 150, carp taka 120, lancer fish taka 590 and sour cards taka 40 only.

"We should change our food habit We should also bring business under certain laws. As trading in Bangladesh does not follow ethics and morality, the retailers in particular, make buyers ransom since the government has failed to build an effective counter market channel. There is no doubt that the Para-military Bangladesh Rifles Fair Price Shop and the kitchen markets have given a lot of relief to the members of the poor and the fixed earners but the strength has not reached to the length of bringing the price to normal."