The government is going to start open market sale (OMS) of onion and three other essential items across the country today (Sunday) with a view to keeping their prices within the reach of the common people.
The move came in the wake of sudden price hike of onion amid Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing flood situation, a source said.
Apart from onion, the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will also sell sugar, soybean oil and red lentil in different areas using trucks as makeshift sales point.
Onion will be sold at Tk 30 per kg, sugar at Tk 50 per kg, lentil at Tk 50 per kg and soybean oil at Tk 80 per litre, said a TCB press release.
The TCB will use 275 trucks as sales points across the country -- 40 trucks in Dhaka, 10 in Chattogram, seven in Rangpur, five each in Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barishal, Sylhet, Bogura and Cumilla, three each in Jhenaidah and Madaripur and two each in the remaining district towns, including upazilas, the TCB press release said.
It will also sell the essential items through additional five trucks in the upazilas concerned under its regional offices.
Thirteen more trucks will be used to sell the items in flood-hit upazilas and districts - four in Mymensingh, four in Rangpur, three in Bogura and two in Madaripur.
Each truck will sell 500-700 kg of sugar, 400-600 kg of red lentils, 200-400 kg of onions and 700-1,000 litres of soybean oil every day.
The OMS programme will continue up to October 01 and sales will take place every day except Fridays and Saturdays. Currently, around 3,000 dealers are listed with the TCB.
In a press releases on September 07, the commerce ministry warned against hoarding and creating artificial crisis of onion.
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