No artificial crisis be allowed in food supply chain: Commerce adviser

Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin today (21 November) said no artificial crisis will be allowed in the supply chain of food and other essentials.

Demand and supply should be brought in balance by increasing the production and involving more people in trading line, he said adding that the market would not be left hostage to few traders."

The adviser was addressing a views exchange meeting on the overall market situation at circuit house auditorium here this morning.

The adviser urged the traders to change their traditional system of transactions, requesting them to keep the memos of transactions from wholesale to retail level.

"Transaction should be transparent. We want none will manipulate the market," the adviser said.

"Our purpose is not making any individual a criminal, but none would be allowed to make the market unstable," he added.

The commerce adviser said many middlemen are making brisk business by selling the delivery order (DO) and supply order (SO) only.

They are doing business virtually without handling any goods physically; he said adding that a tendency has grown in their mind to earn profit by selling DO or SO only.

The business leaders should shun this tendency, Bashir said adding none would be allowed to disrupt the supply chain.

Chattogram divisional commissioner M Tofael Islam presided over the meeting while commerce secretary Mohammad Selim Uddin, Director General of the Directorate of Consumer Rights Protection Mohammad Aleem Akhtar Khan, TCB chairman Brigadier General M Mostafa Iqbal, Chattogram range DIG M Ahsan Habib Polash and student representative Jobayrul Alam Bari.