Market vigilance team lacks law-enforcement members

The lack of members of law-enforcement agencies is hampering the kitchen market monitoring, thus leading to price hike in essentials.
Presently, the monitoring committee does not get support from the members of law-enforcement agencies for monitoring the price of essential commodities in kitchen markets.
This absence of team members has been affecting the market surveillance, a senior official at the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE on Wednesday.
The government had formed 14 monitoring teams in 2014 to help check the surge in prices of essential commodities in the capital city, whose tenure expired in December.
The Commerce Ministry this month formed 14 monitoring teams for the purpose after prices of many essentials, including egg, sugar and garlic, further rose in the capital market shot up days ago.
The teams comprise representatives of the ministries of commerce, agriculture, home and food, and Tariff Commission, Dhaka City Corporation, the district administration of Dhaka, Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
Joint Secretary of Commerce Ministry Md Sadar Ali Biswas, who is the coordinator of market monitoring teams, declined to make any comment.
"If the situation lingers on, it will be difficult for the authorities to keep prices of essentials stable in the coming days," an official of the MoC who is involved in the team activities.
The Commerce Ministry on Tuesday sent an official letter to the home affairs ministry seeking deployment of additional police forces for the monitoring teams to conduct the activities properly, he added.
"Some 14 monitoring teams have been formed to keep the prices of essential items at the retail and wholesale markets of the capital city during holy month of Ramadan and throughout the year," the official said.
    [email protected]