Govt to restart OMS of rice for April

The government is going to restart open market sale (OMS) of rice in labour intensive areas of six divisional headquarters from April 1 for one month through dealers to sell among the low-income people specially workers.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee at the food and disaster management ministry yesterday with Food Minister Abdur Razzak in the chair.
Under the OMS programme, the price of rice would be Tk 18 per kg. At present rice is being sold at Tk 21 to Tk 22 per kg in the market.
A high official at the ministry said, the decision on the OMS operation has been taken mainly to give some relief to the low-paid workers.
Most of the mills and factories in Khalishpur area of Khulna have been closed. OMS operation would be launched there so that workers can get rice at a cheaper price.
OMS programme would also be introduced in similar areas of other divisional headquarters, according to the source.
Procurement price for wheat has been set at Tk 16 per kg to help recover the production loss of the farmers, sources at the meeting said.
After the meeting, the minister told newsmen "Earlier we had decided not to purchase wheat. But as the wheat price has dropped we changed the decision to compensate the farmers on production loss."
The wheat will be procured only from wheat producing districts, including Pabna, Thakurgaon and Sirajganj, from April 1 to April 21.
The meeting also discussed production of wheat and market situation. At present wheat is selling in the market at Tk 12 to Tk 12.50 per kg. The production cost is almost the same. If this situation continues, next time no farmer would cultivate wheat, it observes.
Price of wheat has dropped in local market following significant price fall on international market.