Tenants Council (Baratia Parishad) in Dhaka on Saturday demanded the arrest of unscrupulous traders for their alleged involvement in raising the prices of essential commodities ahead of the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.
"The prices of essential commodities have been soared by the profit-monger traders just before the start of the holy fasting month," president of Tenants Council Md Baharane Sultan Bahar said at a human chain formed in front of the National Press Club.
He said that the prices of essential commodities like rice, edible oil, gram, meat, lentil and others were witnessing a rise every day, leaving the lower and middle-income group of people in utter frustration.
Bahar said that the consumers, especially the lower and middle-income brackets, have become helpless to the syndicate of dishonest traders.
The Tenants Council president also said that it looks like the government has no control over the skyrocketing prices of essentials in the markets.
He said that a kilogramme of minicate rice depending on their quality was sold between Tk 65 and Tk 70 while a litre of bottled soybean/edible oil was ranged from Tk 140 to Tk 145, broiler chicken Tk 160 a kg , beef Tk 600 a kg, mutton Tk 900 a kg , a kg of Sonali or Pakistani variety chicken at Tk 350 to Tk 370 and ruhi fish at Tk 300 to Tk 350 a kg on Saturday.
The middle-class people would not be able to sustain if prices of essential commodities keep rising in such manner, he mentioned.