First day of TCB's mobile truck commodity sales in the capital drew a huge crowd on Monday amid the Covid-19 pandemic ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
Both male and female customers in the city rushed to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh's (TCB) different sales points making long queues for purchasing essential items at subsidised rates, flouting physical distancing rules and thus heightening the risk of transmission of the deadly coronavirus.
Physical distancing is one of the health advisories the World Health Organization (WHO) has prescribed as defence against the deadly coronavirus.
The state-run enterprise has started selling essentials sugar, lentils and soybean oil through 450 mobile trucks across the country.
While visiting different spots in the capital, this correspondent noticed that people stood in long queues in front of the TCB trucks to buy the low-cost essentials without maintaining the physical distancing norms.
Several hundreds of people at the city's Adabor 12 area were seen waiting to buy the commodities flouting the health rules.
Through different social media platforms, it is also seen that the large number of consumers stood in close proximity to others in front of almost every TCB mobile truck that could help spread the virus.
A TCB official told the Financial Express that buyers at the most of the sales points in the capital were not following the health rule which triggered concern due to the surging corona infections.
Rafiq, 40- year-old day labourer, who stood in front of the TCB truck at Adabor area, said that he could not maintain the physical distancing norms as he was habituated to stand very closely with others.
He tried to observe the health rule but violated it unconsciously, he pointed out.
Like him, most of the customers -- both men and women -- at the area broke the rule.
Mamun, one of the sales representatives at Adabor area, said that they instructed all the buyers to stand in queue by observing health rules.
However, they violated the rule, he said, adding that what can we do if they do not follow it, he questioned.
If they stopped selling the essentials, chaos will be created there, he added.
A spokesperson for TCB, Humayun Kabir, told the FE that the TCB officials were trying their level best to implement the health guideline through the dealers.
Even they are giving the instructions to the dealers every day in the morning in this regard so that they can send the message to the customers, he insisted.
He also sought help from the law enforcement agencies to this end.
Under the OMS programme, the TCB is running the trucks through designated dealers every day countrywide aimed at keeping the prices of essentials stable in the markets.
TCB has fixed the prices of sugar at Tk 55 per kilogram (kg) while lentils at Tk 55 a kg and soybean oil at Tk 100 per litre.
A customer can purchase 2-4 kgs of sugar, 2 kgs of lentils and 2-5 litres of soybean oil at a time, according to a TCB circular.
TCB is allocating 600-800 kgs of sugar, 300-600 kgs of lentils and 800-1,200 litres of soybean oil to each of the designated dealers daily except holidays.
The OMS programme will continue until July 29.
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