Plan to appoint new dealers at union level shelved

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FE Report
The government has temporarily shelved a plan about appointment of new dealers at union level considering that such an initiative might cause disruption in fertiliser distribution during the on-going Aman paddy cultivation.
It has asked the existing 4,800 dealers to renew their licences for three months until September and expand their network up to union level, sources said.
They said the government had planned to appoint dealers at unions aiming to ensure proper distribution of fertiliser and avert unnatural crisis created by a section of dealers.
It has been alleged that a section of the existing dealers try to hoard fertiliser during the peak season every year to raise prices.
Sources said any change in fertiliser distribution system at a time when farmers are getting preparation for Aman cultivation might create a setback in rice production.
When asked about Nachole's clash over fertiliser that resulted in the injury of 10 people, including a UNO, an official source said actually there is no crisis of urea fertiliser. The incident took place due to mismanagement, he added.
"We are now allocating fertiliser to the dealers as per requirement of the particular area instead of a uniform distribution system," he said.
"The demand for fertiliser has become high during the peak (IRRI-Boro) season. So, our purpose is to experiment during this mini-peak season on whether such allocation creates any adverse affect or not," a high official of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) told the FE.
He further said: "We will try to appoint dealers at the union level before the peak season (Boro cultivation) starts to check corruption by a section of the dealers."
BFA President Kafil Uddin Ahmed told the FE: "I think the government might appoint dealers to those unions where there are currently no dealers."
However, the sources said a timid approach of the authority concerned has caused the delay in the appointment of dealers at union level in scheduled time resulting in the postponement of the plan.
The BCIC currently produces around 1.7 million tonnes of urea.