NAOGAON, Feb 06: A good number of rice mill labourers of Naogaon district are passing idle time due to the government's decision to purchase less rice.
Sources said, the mill owners of the region have stopped producing rice as the government has taken decision to procure less rice from the local rice mills (chatal) this year than.
As a result, the labourers who involved with 'chatal' mill work have lost their jobs. Moreover, as the government does not intend to procure a large quantity from the rice mills, mill owners are not showing interest in producing rice big amount of rice.
Although the government has a target to procure a large amount of rice from the enlisted rice mill owners by the end of February this year, about 80 per cent of the procurement target has already been fulfilled.
Rice mill owner Samad Hossain of Sadar upazila said he got allotment of only eight tonnes of rice under the procurement scheme this year which is insufficient to run a mill in full swing.
A huge number of day labourers, who earn their livelihood by working as rice mill workers, have become unemployed this year, he added.
As the government has allotted a very small quantity this year, we are buying limited quantity of paddy from the farmers, said another rice mill owner Delowar Hossain.
The authority concern said the government has been purchasing each kilogram of rice from the mill owners at Tk 36 while it's being sold at Tk 28 in local markets.
Although the millers got a small allotment this year, they are getting more profits than that of the previous year, said mill owner Samsul Hossain adding that the government might issue a fresh directive soon to procure more rice from the millers.
We used to earn Tk 500 to Tk 550 daily on production basis earlier, but we manage to earn only Tk 200 to Tk 250 this year, said day labourer Hamudul Islam. Due to less paddy processing and rice production work about 60 per cent labourers became unemployed this year, he added.
