Special OMS to sell rice at Tk 10 per kg from Sunday

NEWS DESK 

The government is going to launch special open market sale (OMS) of rice for Tk 10 a kg in all cities and district towns from Sunday for poor people amid the nationwide shutdown.

The Ministry of Food issued a notice in this regard on Thursday asking the authorities concerned to implement the directive so that low-income people including labourers, rickshaw and van pullers, transport workers, hawkers, tea sellers, beggars, vagabonds and third gender people get the benefit. 

Under the OMS programme, rice will be sold from 10 am to 3 pm on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Each person will be allowed to buy maximum five kg of rice once in a week after showing identity card.

For every centre in Dhaka, 3 metric tons of rice will be allocated every day while two tonnes for every centre outside Dhaka.

The decision came amid the countrywide shutdown being enforced by the government to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak that has caused havoc on the low-income people who live from hand to mouth.

As per the directive, the dealers will also buy the rice at a lowered price at Tk8 per kg instead of Tk28.

"We have fixed the price of OMS rice at Tk10 per kg. The divisional and district commissioners will fix where the rice will be sold," said Dr Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum, secretary to the food ministry.

"We want to ensure that 79 slum areas in the city get the benefit," said Md Mostafizur Rahman, divisional commissioner of Dhaka.

"The dealers have already started taking new shops for that purpose. However, we recommend selling from trucks so that those can be moved to different places," he added.

More than 120 dealers in Dhaka sell OMS rice and flour. Some of them will be selected for selling rice. Directives have been made to ensure that slum dwellers can avail the facility, he said further.

The price of OMS flour has been kept unchanged at Tk18.