The ruling Awami League is doing politics for the country’s people and it feels hurt when they go through pain. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came up with this statement on Tuesday’s executive committee of the national economic council (Ecnec) meeting, saying her government mulls further steps to bring down prices essentials to keep them within tolerable level of ordinary consumers.
We applaud the visionary leadership of Sheikh Hasina for framing strategies and mulling measures on time to ease the public sufferings caused by abnormal prices of all essentials during this tough time. The government is going to sell rice at Tk 15 per kilogram (from September 1) to 50 lakh families alongside taking measures to sell essentials at a fixed price to one crore families through family cards.
Everything has gone out of people’s purchasing capacity. The lower, lower middle, middle and fixed income groups’ people especially day-labourers, rickshaw-pullers, drivers or housemaids are the worst sufferers.
There is no alternative but to get tough on
syndicates responsible for creating unrest in
the kitchen market deliberately
No one will understand their agonies, common people allege every day, adding prices are skyrocketing although their salaries do not increase every year. On the other hand, an organised syndicate comprising traders and wholesalers are still hiking the prices of everything including daily needs.
Though drives are being conducted by mobile courts and Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, the identified members of this unholy nexus remain still untouched. As a result, they have become desperate to make profit in large margin in unethical way.
It is very unfortunate that when people are passing through hard days, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, anti-liberation forces and some elements have extended all-out support to different organised syndicates, instigating them to deepen the crisis further. Apart from them, against the backdrop of the impacts of the global economic situation when the government is trying hard to keep the prices of essential commodities at a minimum level through ensuring stabilisation of economy, some corporate houses, dishonest millers, hoarders and traders together are making the essentials market volatile deliberately.
It is not possible to arrest the prices of daily essentials by only taking measures, making statements or warning issues instead of getting tough on the greedy traders. If the government does not get tough on the organised thugs, the prices of daily essential will not come down. Besides, rampant extortion of the influential quarter in the transportation sector will have to be stopped to bring the abnormal price hike down. There is no alternative but to get tough on syndicates responsible for creating unrest in the kitchen market deliberately.