Strong monitoring required

AMONG other things, the holy month of Ramadan teaches us self-control and self-restraint. It is a period of sacrifice to attain satisfaction of Allah. But regrettably, in this holy month, we encounter some unpleasant experiences like price hike of essentials and adulteration of food.

Every year, a group of dishonest traders create artificial crisis by illegally hoarding some essential items from the kitchen markets and earn abnormally high profits. They do so particularly prior to Ramadan. As a result, prices of some essential items reach abnormal heights every year. There is no earthly reason for such hikes as in most cases prices rise to accentuate the sufferings of the lower-middle income groups. This happens every year even without the occurrence of any natural calamities in the country. And, our commerce minister is reported to have stated in this regard that it is possible to keep the prices of essentials within our reach this year as there is adequate supply of all essentials in the country. Still the prices of these items soared. This has negatively impacted the prices of other commodities as well. Dishonest traders sometimes take the chance of incidents that have nothing to do with the price hike. So it is imperative to contain price rise of essentials through a strong monitoring system that can engage law enforcers along with law against such dishonest traders. Under these circumstances, the intervention of our relevant authorities is urgently required.

Md. Abul Khaer

Dept. of Zoology

Govt. Saadat College, Tangail

[email protected]