Dhaka //

The interim government has constituted a special task force to monitor and review the market situation and supply chain of essential commodities. These task forces have been formed at district level, which will work separately at all district levels of the country.

This information was informed in a notification of the Ministry of Commerce on Monday. The Additional District Commissioner will be the convener of the special task force in each district and the Assistant Director of the National Directorate of Consumer Rights Protection will be the member secretary.

Apart from this, the task force will have an Additional Superintendent of Police, District Food Controller or appropriate representative, District Livestock Officer or appropriate representative, District Fisheries Officer or appropriate representative, Agricultural Marketing Officer or Senior Agricultural Marketing Officer, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) representative as members. and two student representatives. The notification informed that the task force can co-opt members if necessary.

Amidst the prevailing high inflation, the prices of various daily commodities in the market have increased one more time recently. For example, a kg of green chillies has increased to Tk 400, the price of chicken eggs per dozen farm has increased by Tk 180-190. Apart from this, prices of almost all types of vegetables including products like broiler chicken have also increased. In this situation, the government formed a task force in the district to monitor the market situation of daily necessities amid various discussions and criticisms.

Earlier, Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud Sajib Bhuiyan in a Facebook status on Sunday mentioned the reduction of import duty on some products and said that even after many products were made duty free, there was no impact on the market due to the violence of the syndicate. The process of forming a task force on market monitoring is underway. The task force will enter the field soon. The notification for the formation of the task force was issued the day after Asif Mahmud gave such a message.

According to the commerce ministry notification, the members of this task force (in each district) will regularly visit various markets, large warehouses, godowns, cold storage and other places in the supply chain. They will ensure that the prices of daily necessities are kept at a reasonable level.

Apart from this, the task force will work to ensure that the price difference at the production, wholesale and consumer level of the product is kept to a minimum level. At the same time, the members of the task force will hold an exchange meeting with all the stakeholders.

After the daily monitoring, the task force will send a report to the Commodity Price Review and Forecast Cell of the Ministry of Commerce and the Central Control Room of the National Directorate of Consumer Protection. The National Directorate of Consumer Protection will compile and review the reports received from various districts and submit a report to the Ministry of Commerce by 7 pm every day.