RICE is our staple food and the importance of its availability in terms of price and quantity can hardly be overemphasised. Lately, price of rice has been galloping fast following the devastating floods in the country. Traders predict that rice prices will go further up in the coming days. In last one month, the price of fine rice increased by Tk 6.0-8.0 per kg while the price of medium and coarse varieties rose between Tk 8.0 -10 per kg. It is needless to mention that any rise in price of rice affects the poor and low income people most. As price of fine rice exceeds Tk 60 per kg middle class people are also affected as it happened so this year.
In comparison with last year, price of fine rice increased by Tk 11 per kg and that of coarse rice rose by Tk 14 per kg. The government appears to have failed in building proper stock of food grains to combat a crisis. In view of rising rice price every week, the food ministry and the commerce ministry are blaming each other. It is well known that traders create artificial crises and raise the price of rice when chips are down. I hope the government takes all preparations to control the price of rice including a steady stock to fight any possibility of a crisis.
Nuruddin Mukul
Elephant Road, Dhaka
