http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2011/07/14/92998
Rice queue gets longer for hartal
The open market sale (OMS) outlets in the city yesterday saw a huge rush of customers struggling to buy rice and flour as the shops resumed operation after a four-day halt.Two days of hartal on Wednesday and Thursday and the weekly breaks in OMS operation on Tuesday and Friday affected the interruption.
The Daily Star found over 300 buyers queued up to purchase rice from an OMS shop at West Shewrapara in Mirpur."I joined the queue at 1:00pm and it's 2:30pm now. I don't think I will get rice today," said frustrated Zarina Begum, 45, a domestic help.She works at several houses to maintain her five-member family and makes some time in-between to buy rice.
The cheapest rice sells at Tk 36 a kilogram in the retail market, which is almost beyond her capacity. She feared her life would become worse if she could not buy the staple from the OMS outlet.
As the outlet's total quantity was not enough for so many people, customers asked the dealer's staff to sell rice in smaller amounts than the usual quota of 5 kg per person.OMS shops at 101 points in the capital sell rice at Tk 24 a kg and flour at Tk 20 a kg.Outlets usually start selling at 9:00am and end at 5:00pm, but the unusual rush exhausted many of the dealers' stocks by 3:00pm yesterday, said dealers.
Finding no rice available at a Shewrapara OMS shop, housewife Hasna Hena went to a Kazipara outlet, but she returned unprovided."I am now buying a less amount of vegetables and other foodstuff, but it is not possible to consume less rice. Life has become tougher for us," she lamented.
Many people returned empty-handed due to excessive pressure of buyers, said Mohammad Maksud, a staff of dealer Babul Traders at West Kazipara in Mirpur.Contacted, food ministry officials said the government stopped OMS operation during the last hartal days, but has decided to resume operation for today and tomorrow, the days of hartal called by 12 religion-based political parties.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=193607
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