Fair-price sale of milk, eggs, meat kicks off with mismanagement 

Many consumers complained that they did not get any product even after waiting for hours in the queue to buy milk, eggs and meat on the first day of fair price sale by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock in Dhaka on Sunday.

Some managed to buy four to five kg of meat from mobile freezing vans while many had to leave empty handed as products ran out.

Primarily, 10 sale spots have been selected – Abdul Gani Road, Khamarbari roundabout, Japan Garden City, Mirpur 60 feet road, Azimpur Maternity, Nayabazar at Old Dhaka, Arambag, Notun Bazar, Kalshi, and Jatrabari. 

Around 2:40pm on Sunday, there was a queue of 20 consumers in front of the mobile freezing van at Khamarbari roundabout. Ten of them did not get any product when the sale ended at 3:20pm.

One of them, Mohammad Jahangir told TBS, "One bought four kg of meat and five kg of milk but I, along with nine others, have not got even one kg. As the amount of product is less than demand, there should have been a limit an individual can buy."

People who did not get any product have asked the authorities concerned to increase the amount in each mobile van.

Mobile freezing van in-charge in Khamarbari Akhter Hossain said, "We did not get any instruction on how much a consumer can buy so we sold three to four kg of meat and five kg of milk to a customer."

However, while addressing the inauguration of the programme on Sunday, Department of Livestock Services Director General Monjur Mohammad Shahjada said one consumer would get one kg of meat, one litre of milk and 30 pieces of eggs.

Another consumer at Khamarbari Md Azim was lucky as he managed to buy one kg of beef at Tk550, two litres of milk at Tk120 at 3pm. He said sales centres should be increased as there were many people in the queue behind me who did not get anything.

Products worth Tk1.30 lakh were sold on the first day at Khamarbari. Each freezer van was provided with 15 kg of chicken, 1,000 eggs, 222 litres of milk and 100 kg of beef on the first day. The amount would be increased based on the demand, said Mohammad Jahangir.

In the mobile vans, the price of one litre pasteurised milk has been fixed at Tk60, beef at Tk550, mutton at Tk800, dressed broiler chicken at Tk200 per kg and four eggs at Tk30. The sales will continue from 10am to 5pm till 28 Ramadan.