Staff Correspondent

The government has decided to start selling of potato, eggs, onion, patal under Open Market Sale (OMS) in the capital from tomorrow.

“For the first time we are going to start selling of perishable items such as potato, egg, onion, patal at different points in the city to give relief to the fixed income group people,” secretary of the agriculture ministry Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian told BSS here today.

He said the government will also sell some vegetables at subsidised prices to the low-income groups as part of a pilot project in the capital.

Adviser for the agriculture ministry Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Adviser for the commerce ministry Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, commerce secretary Md Selim Uddin and agriculture secretary Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian are expected to attend at the opening programme to be held in front of the Directorate General of Food Office tomorrow.

“We will inaugurate selling of potatoes, egg, onion and patal in front of the Directorate General of Food Office at Abdul Ghani Road at 11am tomorrow,” the agriculture secretary said.

He said per kilogram of potato will be sold at Taka 30, per dozen of egg at Taka 130, per kilogram of onion at Taka 70 and green vegetables will sold at least 20-30 percent less than the existing market price.

The agriculture secretary said the ministry will directly collect the perishable items such as potato, egg, onion and patal, directly from farmers and then sell those through the OMS at designated spots in the city.

At least 20 locations have been fixed for selling the items for the next two weeks and if the pilot project is successful, the number of selling points and days would be increased, he added.

The decision was made at a special meeting between Chief Adviser of the interim government Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and several other advisers at the chief adviser's official residence yesterday, according to the agriculture ministry.

It said the Department of Agricultural Marketing, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) will provide the necessary support to implement the decision.