The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

The government is to intensify market following "specific methods" engaging army-led joint forces, elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops and the civil administration, an official statement said here on Thursday.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting convened to review the import, supply, reserve and overall price situation of essential commodities at the Commerce Ministry with Additional Commerce Secretary Golam Mostakim in the chair, it said.

The meeting also asked the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), BDR and Food Department to put in their all-out efforts to smoothen the supply chain directing particularly the TCB to import 3,000 tonnes of pulses (musur), 3,000 tonnes of edible oil, 500 tonnes of onion and 500 tonnes of grams ahead of the Ramadan.

The meeting was told that the current rice reserve was more than 10 lakh tonnes, the highest in the past eight years, the statement said.

Representatives of the Ministries of Home, Food, Agriculture, Fisheries & Livestock, Local Government, Agriculture Marketing Department, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, TCB, Import-Export Controller's office, BDR, police, National Security Intelligence were present at the meeting.