WINTER is the season of vegetables in Bangladesh. Usually adequate quantity of different variety of vegetables are cultivated and consumed through out the country in this season. And we have experienced in the past few decades that the prices of vegetables also come way down in winter.
But this year the consumers are facing a totally different situation. The price of all the vegetables in Dhaka city is abnormally high. A Bangla national daily recently reported that a few powerful quarters have been forcibly purchasing the vegetables from wholesalers at all entry points of Dhaka city. They create obstacles for the wholesalers to enter the kitchen markets with loaded tracks. The law enforcement agencies, allegedly, overlook the phenomenon. The gangs bring the vegetables, which they purchase forcibly in the wholesale market and sell at exorbitant high price to the traders.
As the retail traders have to purchase the vegetables at much higher prices, they charge more to the buyers. Ultimately the retailers have to shift the burden of higher price to the end consumers. No democratic government can tolerate such hoodlumism against the interest of consumers.
The authorities need to take the situation seriously, and protect the interests of the commoners.
Md Ashraf Hossain
Dhaka