There is a fear of a food crisis in Myanmar's Rakhine state due to the civil war. In this situation, the law enforcement agencies including the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been instructed to strictly monitor the border to prevent smuggling of food grains from Bangladesh, said Ali Imam Majumdar, advisor in charge of the Food Ministry.
He shared this information at a press briefing after a meeting on 'Strengthening the system to prevent food grain smuggling' at the Cox's Bazar deputy commissioner's office on Thursday afternoon.
At the press briefing, he said, “If there is a food crisis, there is a risk of some smuggling from Bangladesh. There was already a tendency of smuggling of fertilizer and fuel oil here. Therefore, it has been decided to continue monitoring and strengthen it further if necessary. So that smuggling cannot occur under any circumstances.”
Commenting on the current government stockpiling and import system of food grains in the country, the advisor said that if there is no major natural disaster ahead, the rice crisis that has arisen will be over and the price of rice will also be tolerable.
He said the country currently has 13 lakh metric tons of rice and wheat in stock.
The advisor said, “The government is also taking steps to ensure that prices are tolerable around the upcoming month of Ramadan. 50 lakh families in the country will get 30 kg of rice at Tk 15 per kg during the upcoming Ramadan month. In addition, 1 crore families will be provided with 100,000 metric tons of rice as a gift on the occasion of the upcoming Eid. All this is a part of the government's food-friendly program that the current government has taken this initiative.”
Earlier, the meeting held under the chairmanship of District Smuggling Prevention Committee president and deputy commissioner Muhammad Salahuddin was attended by top officials of the district administration including the army, BGB, RAB, police.
Bangladesh has a 271-kilometer border with Myanmar. Of this, the water border is 54 kilometers.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
