Minister blames six groups, Square official arrested

The countrywide raids against illegal rice hoarding and trading continued for the second consecutive day on Wednesday with the prices of the staple on the local market remaining still high during this harvesting period.

Food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, however, blamed six major industrial groups for the sudden rise in rice prices in the country’s market.

He further said that the government was planning to restrict packaged rice selling after its collection from the open market.

Speaking to reporters at the secretariat on Wednesday, the minister blamed Square Group, Pran Group, City Group, Akij Group, Bashundhara Group and ACI Group for the price hike, without elaborating.

Ajoy Kumar Kundu, chief operating officer of Medicom Ltd, a concern of Square Group, denied making any comment over the minister’s allegation.

The price of fine rice has gone up to Tk 80-Tk 85 per kilogram in the capital from Tk 70 to Tk 75 two weeks ago. The price of coarse rice has gone up to Tk 65 per kilogram in the capital from Tk 55 to Tk 60 during the same period.

The countrywide drives against unauthorised rice trading and hoarding began a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered actions against hoarders in the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday.

Food ministry officials said that rice market monitoring teams of the ministry, local administration and the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection visited several hundred warehouses in 450 upazilas across the country on Wednesday.

They realised Tk 23,59,500 in fines from traders for hoarding rice and selling it at high prices.

The DNCRP director Monjur Mohammad Shariar told New Age that their team conducted drives in 32 districts and raided 86 warehouses and fined traders Tk 7,26,000 for different irregularities.

Food ministry officials said that they did not fine any trader but the Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Dinajpur Sadar seized 5,124 tonnes of rice from a warehouse during a drive.

Executive magistrate and Dinajpur Sadar UNO Murtuza-Al-Muheed led the drives at Ispahani Rice Mill and M/S Square Food and Beverage warehouses at Gopalpur Bazar of the upazila on Tuesday night.

Murtuza-Al-Muheed told New Age that the mobile court found 5,124 tonnes of rice in Square Group’s six warehouses.

‘The company had permission to store only 312 tonnes but it stored 5,124 tonnes of rice illegally,’ he said.

He said that a regular case was filed against the company and the seized rice, worth Tk 41 crore, was handed over to the upazila food controller office.

Sadar police station officer-in-charge Mozaffor Hossain said that a case was filed on Wednesday against warehouse owner Anjan Chowdhury and its in-charge Zayed Hossain in this connection.

‘Zayed was arrested in the case,’ he said.

Square Group’s concern Medicom chief operating officer Ajoy said that the company had stored only aromatic rice for export purposes.

‘We used to collect rice from the local market and pack them under our brand Chashi Aromatic Chinigura Rice,’ he said.

Asked about the unapproved quantity of rice storage he denied making any comment.

The packaged rice is available in shops across the country as people use it only for occasions, he said.

The food ministry officials said that their five teams were active in different markets to monitor the rice price.

A team of the food ministry, led by deputy secretary Marzina Akhter, conducted a drive At Karwanbazar in the capital around 1:00pm.

She said that they found irregularities in rice storage and licence documents, adding that most of the traders put their shutters down and left as they entered the market.

At Babubazar, a monitoring team, led by deputy secretary Mohammed Shamsuzzaman, conducted a drive in 10 shops.

All but one shop stored rice maintaining rules, Shamsuzzaman said, adding that their drive against illegal hoarders would continue.

New Age correspondent in Barishal reported that the Barishal district administration, food control department and consumer rights protection department operated drives to check the rice price hikes.

Six enterprises were fined a total of Tk 1.49 lakh for irregularities during these drives.

New Age staff correspondent in Rajshahi reported that the local administration and the DNCRP fined six traders Tk 1.6 lakh for illegal hoarding of rice in Natore and Naogoan districts.