The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

In view of a growing demand for rice and other essentials at fair price amid market buck-ups, paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) decided to open 25 additional outlets in the city from Sunday.

With the new outlets total BDR fair-price shops will stand at 75. Briefing reporters at the BDR Headquarters, Task Force Commander of 'Operation Dal Bhaat' Col Md Majibul Hoque said that, if necessary, more outlets would be opened in Dhaka City.

He said presently BDR is selling 600 metric tonnes of rice daily from the existing 50 outlets, meeting demand of one lakh people. And with the opening of 25 new outlets from Sunday, some 800-900 metric tonnes of rice would be sold to 1.75 lakh city-dwellers.

So far, one lakh metric tonnes of rice have been sold out since the Operation Dal-Bhaat was launched in March last year. Of the quantum, BDR got 10,000 MTs from the government OMS programme. Col Hoque said price of rice has a little come down and hoped that "if all could maintain discipline, food problem could be overcome within one month".

In reply to a question, he said they had to raise the rice price as they could not procure enough rice in time for a lack of assessment.

In reply to a question, Col Hoque said, "Since there is no possibility of reduction in price of rice on the international market in next 2-3 years, the country needs to boost agriculture production on a war footing."