The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

In the wake of worst ever price inflation of groceries, the demand for rationing of essentials under the state supervision is growing stronger here in the port city.

Though state moves like the vulnerable group feeding (VGF), food for work (FFW), open market selling (OMS) of rice and cash assistance for ultra-poor on special cases are there on operation, the egoist middle and fixed income groups are still staying out of the basic food security net of the state.

It is alleged that nothing has so far been done from the state side for the survival of the fixed-income groups especially in the days of extreme economic hardship screwed up from dearness of food stuff, groceries and fossil fuel.

A private college teacher said with frustration that his monthly income hardly could feed the family for slightly over two weeks and the story for the rest of the month was no better than a beggar.

"We urge the government for reviving the rationing system as it had been in post liberation years," Mofazzal Karim, a private firm official said narrating the unpredictable reality of income and expenses.

Many think that rationing of the groceries may help low and fixed-income people to skip the over exploitation of the greedy grocers and retailers who hardly care for public interest and the state requirement.

The government is often coming under fire mainly because of the careless attitude to the middle-class people, powerful driving force of the sociopolitical dealings, when faster marginalization of the section is visible.

The government's planning for wage hike for the public servants in the form of dearness allowance has reportedly made trimming millions involved in the private enterprises worried as most of the private enterprises might not afford wage increase amid economic recession.

According to the economists higher cash flow in the market will made the commodities even costlier promoting the process of what is called "silent famine" in the country. They believe faster and better distribution of commodities if possible under the supervised network may help tackle the situation best.

"Since most of the population has already come under electronic data base of the election commission, it would not be so difficult for the government to revive the nationwide rationing outlets and identifying the beneficiaries," Abul Bashar, an economist turned banker commented.

Public bodies like Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), Department of Food, department of Disaster Management may easily work together for taking the food stuff to the actually needy people in the remote areas apart from the urban initiatives. [The End]

Lead: 2 BGSL officials held in Ctg for bribery Chittagong Correspondent Officials of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) today caught two officials of Bakhrabad Gas Systems Limited (BGSL) red-handed while receiving bribe.

The detained BGSL officials are identified as Manager (Raiser-South) Mohammad Mominul Islam and Assistant Engineer Apurba Kumar Banik. The BGSL officials had immediately been placed under questioning.

Sources said that the ACC men backed by the detectives started constantly eyeing on the officials following a formal complaint from a merchant Mohammad Elias.

The squad caught both the BGSL officials shortly after Taka two thousand was given away to them by the complainant at the offices of the detainees at Halishahar at about 1:30 p.m.

A case has been recorded in connection with the incident.