The salt farmers and traders of Cox's Bazar have sought the intervention of the Prime Minister to protect the domestic salt industry by stopping the import of industrial salt in the country.
Cox's Bazar Salt Farmers and Traders Sangram Parishad made this demand at a press conference at Cox's Bazar Press Club on Thursday morning.
Later, they handed over a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through the Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar.
Advocate Mohammad Shahid Ullah read out a written statement at the press conference. He said, ‘There are about 55,000 salt farmers and about 57,270 acres of land in Cox’s Bazar and Banshkhali are brought under salt farming.
In addition, a huge number of people in the district make a living through trades that are based on the salt industry. Therefore, if the domestic salt industry is destroyed, thousands of people will become unemployed, who have no other occupation.
He added that, in 2009 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina played a significant role in formulating a salt policy to protect the domestic salt industry which gave farmers and traders of salt industry new hopes.
However, the ‘Salt Syndicate’ was repeatedly conspiring to destroy the domestic salt industry by making the country dependent on foreign salt. Then in 2014, The Prime Minister announced that not even a handful of salt would be imported unnecessarily. Price of salt was stable for almost 4 long years after that, he added.
“Nevertheless, unscrupulous businessmen have become active in the region again. Due to restrictions on the import of edible salt, they started importing more industrial salt than required by obtaining permission. Then they started marketing that industrial salt as edible salt. Seeing this opportunity, mill owners stopped buying domestic salt and became dependent on foreign salt. As a result the locally produced salt is remaining unsold. Quoting BSCIC he added in 2020 alone, 3 lakh 48 metric tonnes of domestic salt remained unsold.
He in the press conference claimed that the actual demand for industrial salt in the country has not been determined yet. Unscrupulous traders are destroying the domestic salt industry by importing excess industrial salt.
In the press it was claimed that the actual demand for industrial salt in the country has not been determined yet so the unscrupulous traders are destroying the domestic salt industry by importing excess industrial salt.
Cox's Bazar Salt Farmers and Traders Sangram Parishad convener Makshud Ahmed, Pekua Ujantia UP Chairman Shahidul Islam Chowdhury, Md Kalim Ullah Kali, Hasan Abedin Chowdhury, Jamil Ibrahim, Sirajul Mostafa and others were present at the press conference.