Crackdown on sugar hoarders

Some 9,000 bags of sugar were seized from the warehouses of three businessmen in the city on Thursday during a joint drive conducted by Khulna City Corporation (KCC) and district administration.
The godowns were immediately sealed off and the seized sugar was put on open market sale at different places of the city yesterday morning.
With the seizure of these bags, a total of 29,000 bags of sugar have been seized in the drive launched Wednesday evening.
Two thousand bags of sugar were found at the godown of Haji Mohammad Amin, a director of Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industry and proprietor of Baghdad Trading at Khulna Station Road, said KCC Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque who led the joint drive on Thursday.
The team also seized 5,000 bags of sugar from Shahjalal Banijya Bhandar owned by Md Idris Mian and another 2,000 bags from RK Roy Traders owned by Uttam Kumar Roy.
According to the mayor, the three businessmen imported sugar and later hoarded it to create artificial crisis with a motive to make huge profits. Besides, most of the TCB listed dealers sold their sugar to hoarders without putting it on open market sale, the mayor alleged.
On Wednesday evening, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police seized 20,000 bags of sugar from the godowns of three businessmen at Khulna Bazar and Station Road.