Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder on Tuesday said, “There are no paddy or rice names such as ‘Miniket‘ and ‘Najirshail’ in the country.
But, the rice of the two varieties is available in the market. Once we imported fine rice from India. The rice was available in the market as ‘Minipack’.”
“Taking the advantage, some unscrupulous traders have started selling rice with the name of ‘Miniket’. The government has taken steps to stop such activities. There will be no rice named as ‘Miniket’ or ‘Najirshil’ in the market any more as the government is mulling to promulgate a new law keeping the provision of mentioning the actual name of the rice variety on the bags,” he said, while addressing the Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters’ Forum (BSRF) Dialogue at Secretariat’s Media Centre on Tuesday.
BSRF President Tapan Bishwas presided over the function moderated by its General Secretary Masudul Hoque. Among others, BSRF Vice President Motaher Hossain also spoke at the event.
“We have already submitted a draft law to the Cabinet Division. It’s now in the Law Ministry for vetting (opinion). Under the provisions of the draft law, the rice traders or companies would be able to use their own brand name, but the varieties must be mentioned on the bags,” he added.
He also stated that the highest level of polishing the rice would also be mentioned in the law.
“The millers and traders usually misuse a huge portion of rice during polishing. It’s a misuse of our produced rice. That’s why the ratio of tolerable polishing was mentioned in the law. The millers and traders will not be allowed to cross the level once the law is passed. Then we’ll be able to consume the rice we usually consumed before,” he said, claiming “Then packaging of rice will be stopped. There will be no scope of selling normal rice as fine by packaging.”
He also informed that the government is also planning to sell Atta (flour) after packaging from October 1 this year to prevent illegal black-marketing of Atta.
“There are scopes available for illegal smuggling of unpacked Atta. So, the government is planning to sell packaged Atta in the market and its Open Market Sale (OMS) and Food Friendly Programme (FFP). The procedure of packing Atta has already started. Though it would be costlier, it would be good for the consumers as the standard of Atta will remain good,” he added.
Reiterating the warning for the unscrupulous rice traders for making additional profit creating suffering for the people by increasing food price, he said that they were already asked to open individual or group websites, so that their price of products can be mentioned there. The authorities would be able to know whether the traders are taking additional prices or not monitoring the price from the websites.
Citing the Aush production situation across the country, Majumder said, “I haven’t seen such production of Aush grown this year in my whole life. Besides, we have a stock of around 20 lakh metric tonnes of rice and wheat now. In this situation, it would not be fair to hike rice prices in the market.”