Keep prices of essentials under control during Ramzan: Opposition parties

Staff Reporter :
The opposition political parties of the country have urged the government to keep prices of daily commodities at affordable limit during the holy month of Ramzan.
The daily commodities like edible oil, chickpea, pulse, pea, onion, spices, sugar and date are highly demand during the holy month of fasting.
A section of dishonest traders have increased the prices of essentials through syndication under the plea of short supply, they alleged.
In this backdrop the political leaders said that the poor have their back against the wall because of high prices of essentials and most of the middle- and low-income families in the country are forced to compromise on their standard of living due to high inflation.
Leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jatiya Party (JaPa) and Islami Andolan Bangladesh have said this in their respective separate programmes.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a programme has recently alleged that the prices of essentials are going up alarmingly due to the government’s corruption and mismanagement.
The management of the essential consumer goods market is held hostage by a syndicate of some corrupt businessmen who are beneficiaries of the illegitimate government, he added.Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “The government’s corruption is behind the growing inflation and the current economic hardship. Because of the corruption, the prices of goods are increasing unrestrainedly, hitting hard the middle class, lower middle class and the poor people of the country. Corruption, total failure, and mismanagement of the government have created this situation.”
On the other hand, BNP Standing Committee member Khandkar Mosharraf Hossain alleged that this government has no responsibility towards the people as before the arrival of the month of Ramzan the prices of goods in the market have become uncontrolled. People are worried about how they will spend their days during fasting, he said.
Businesses will now be able to import eight sorts of essential goods on deferred payment basis as the central bank has announced such facilities aiming to make supply of these commodities available during the upcoming holy month of Ramzan.
JaPa Chairman GM Quader urged the government to keep the prices of essentials at tolerable limit as the people are lamenting due to the ever-increasing the prices of daily commodities ahead of Ramzan.
“The prices of daily commodities have already skyrocketed. Though the income of the people of the country has not increased, the living cost has increased a lot. So the purchasing power of common people has decreased,” he said in a statement issued on Monday.
“The commoners have been failing even to buy baby food because of lack of money. Even, the people cannot get treatment and buy medicine due to wants of money,” he added.
Considering the reality, GM Quader urged the government to introduce rationing system to save the people and if needed the prices of daily commodities should be kept stable by giving subsidies during the month of Ramzan and before the Holy Eid.
Islami Muktijoddah Prajanma Parishad President Shahidul Islam Kabir said in a statement that the recent price hike of oil, gas and electricity have pushed the country’s people into a great problem.
The common people have been made to suffer by increasing the prices of all the daily necessities including education, health, clothes, transport, broiler chicken (now selling at Tk 260 per kg) ahead of the holy month of Ramzan, he said.
Banks have been emptied by smuggling of the country’s money abroad; he said adding that the burden of people’s debt is increasing following the price hike of essentials.
Shahidul Islam Kabir further said that many of the common people who eat hard now can’t afford to buy fish and meat, he said. The government must reduce the prices of essentials and stand by the helpless people.