Rangamati Correspondent

Beef is not being sold in Rangamati because the administration has fixed the price. Butchers have stopped business and slaughtering cows. Consumers are in trouble. Especially the fasting people of the Muslim community are in dire straits. Beef has not been available in the city for the past week. This information is available by searching.

It is known that like all over the country, the district administration has decided the selling price of beef in Rangamati city for the welfare of the common consumers. On March 11, instructions were given to sell beef with bones at Tk 700 per kg at the fixed price. Since then, the butchers have stopped the slaughter of cows and the sale of meat in a total of 6 slaughterhouses in the city in protest of the fixed price. In the first week of the ongoing Ramadan, consumers including local hotels and restaurants are in extreme trouble.

The concerned traders said that there is a high demand for desi or mountain beef in Rangamati. These mountain cows have to be collected from different inaccessible hilly areas of the district and brought to the city. In Mainimukh market of Longadu upazila, one has to pay 1 thousand 500 rupees per cow for lease also there is transportation cost. Besides, cows have to be bought at a high price.

Harun Saudagar, a beef seller in the city's Reserve Bazar, admitted that the sale of meat has been stopped and said that it is not possible to sell meat at a loss by buying cows at a high price. At the price fixed by the administration for the sale of beef, if we sell it at Sedam, we will incur huge losses. However, we sought permission to sell beef at Tk 750 per kg. But I was forced to stop selling beef due to not getting permission If you sell beef at 700 taka per kg, you have to pay a loss of 10-15 thousand taka per cow.

The main commercial area of the city is the beef seller of Banrupa Bazar. Zafar said, if you buy cows from hilly areas and sell them in Rangamati city with the rent of 1500 rupees for each cow in Longdur Mainimukh Bazar and transport costs, the price of beef per kg falls to more than 800 rupees. There, the district administration has ordered to sell at 700 rupees. It is not possible to sell beef with such a loss. So we are no longer selling meat.

Tabalchari market meat seller. Jahangir said that there is no big local farmer in Rangamati. We are collecting and selling hill cows from hills, so if our meat price is not kept at minimum 750 taka, we are losing. We have stopped selling beef for the time being as we are not able to sell beef at Tk 700 as directed by the district administration.

Meanwhile, beef is sold at 6 places in the city. An average of 10/12 cows are slaughtered and sold in the city on other days of the week except Sunday. Consumers are angry because the sale of beef has stopped at the beginning of Ramadan. Consumers demand that necessary steps be taken quickly in this regard.

When contacted in this regard, Deputy Commissioner Md. Mosharraf Hossain Khan said that beef has been asked to be sold at Tk 650 per kg at the price set by the government. Considering the real issue of Rangamati there, I asked for sale at 700 rupees. He also advised the common consumers to collect and slaughter cows on their own initiative and share the meat if needed.