The government has decided to start selling potatoes, eggs, onions, and patal under the Open Market Sale (OMS) from Tuesday, reports BSS.
“For the first time we are going to start selling of perishable items such as potato, egg, onion, patal at different points in the city to give relief to the fixed income group people,” said Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, the secretary of the Agriculture Ministry.
He said the government will also sell some vegetables at subsidised prices to low-income groups as part of a pilot project in the capital.
Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Adviser to the Agriculture Ministry, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Adviser to the commerce ministry, commerce secretary Md Selim Uddin, and agriculture secretary Dr. Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian are expected to attend the opening program on Tuesday in front of the Directorate General of Food Office.
“We will inaugurate the selling of potatoes, egg, onion and patal in front of the Directorate General of Food Office at Abdul Ghani Road at 11am tomorrow,” the agriculture secretary said.
He stated that potatoes will be sold at Tk 30 per kilogram, eggs at Tk 130 per dozen, onions at Tk 70 per kilogram, and green vegetables will be available at prices 20-30 percent lower than the current market rates.
The agriculture secretary said the ministry will directly collect the perishable items such as potato, egg, onion and patal, directly from farmers and then sell those through the OMS at designated spots in the city.
At least 20 locations have been fixed for selling the items for the next two weeks and if the pilot project is successful, the number of selling points and days would be increased, he added.
According to the agriculture ministry, the decision was made during a special meeting on Sunday between the Chief Adviser of the interim government, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, and several other advisers at the chief adviser's official residence.
bd-pratidin/Rafid
