Govt plans to reintroduce food rationing

The government is considering reintroducing food rationing system to help the poor people, Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak said yesterday.
"The prime minister has entrusted some experienced persons with the task of assessing various relevant factors such as when the system can be reintroduced and which areas it will cover," the minister told reporters.
He also said that the prime minister is keen on the rationing system considering its benefit for the poorer section of society.
"She will take the decision on the basis of suggestions from the experienced persons," the minister said, adding that the persons would finalise who and how many people would be brought under the safety net programme.
The food minister also said that there would be no scope to allocate food grains for the rural areas through lawmakers. Instead, he said, chairmen of upazila parishad and union parishad will look after the matter.
"This time the food ministry would not provide any allocation for the MPs with regard to development projects," he added.
In line with the existing rules, allocations will be made for districts and the upazila and union parishad chairmen will receive them from the districts for the development projects, the minister added.
He, however, said the lawmakers may request the chairmen to implement various projects such as construction of roads in their areas.