The disruption in kitchen market monitoring has led to a rise in prices of some key items amid the ongoing transportation blockade coupled with frequent hartal calls.
"Presently no law-enforcer is available for conducting the kitchen market monitoring in the capital. The law enforcers have been remaining busy maintaining law and order since the beginning of the ongoing countrywide blockade in early January last," an official at the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE on Wednesday.
"If the situation lingers on, it will be difficult for the authorities to keep prices of essentials stable during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan," he added.
MoC Deputy Secretary Md Sadar Ali Biswas, who is the coordinator of market monitoring teams, declined to make any comment, when approached at his Secretariat office on Tuesday.
In a move to check the surge in prices of essential commodities in the capital city, the government formed about 14 monitoring teams last year.
Each of the teams consists of nine members drawn from different ministries, government agencies and business associations, according to the MoC.
The teams also comprise representatives from the ministries of commerce, agriculture, home and food, and the Tariff Commission, Dhaka City Corporation, the district administration of Dhaka, Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
The monitoring teams for the Dhaka city markets had started their inspection on July 01 last year.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh president Ghulam Rahman stressed the need for increasing monitoring activities in the city markets to rein in prices of essential items.
But he also laid exphasis on keeping the supply chain across the country unhindered.
According to sources, the supply chain of daily necessities has broken down across the country due to the ongoing countrywide blockade coupled with frequent general strikes enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
Truck and covered van owners do not want to transport any goods from one place to another at high risks. Some truck and covered van owners are, however, transporting goods defying the adverse situation. But they are charging high because of the risk factor, especially on the long routes. Vehicles are often vandalised and torched amid the ongoing blockade, according to them.
The owners said the consumers were bearing the brunt of the higher transport costs, as they were purchasing the necessary commodities at higher prices.
In the city markets, prices of both local and imported varieties of onion reportedly increased further last week due to the supply shortage and the rise in transportation costs.
Summer vegetables including ridge gourd, snake gourd, sponge gourd and pointed gourd were selling at higher prices in the city markets.
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