Mobile courts have penalised several traders in three districts for hoarding rice amid price of the staple grain skyrocketing in three weeks.
Published : 19 Sep 2017, 02:07 PM
The court also fined traders in Faridpur, Natore and Rajshahi for operating without a license and violating food preparation laws.
One trader, who owns of four rice mills in Natore, was fined over a quarter million taka for various offences.
Satata Enterprise owner Md Raihanuddin, Chowdhury Traders owner Kishore Kumar Chowdhury, Jahangir Auto Rice Agency owner Md Jahangir Alam and Bhai Bhai Enterprise owner Hajji Alamgir Kabir were fined by a mobile court at Gurudaspur’s Chanchkoir Bazar, said Natore Additional District Magistrate Md Razzaqul Islam.
“They were hoarding rice to make excess profits, selling coarse rice as Miniket fine rice, trimming 400g to 500g from each sack, using illegal trademarks, failing to write production dates and prices on sacks, and colluding to keep prices high,” the magistrate said.
Raihanuddin was fined Tk 70,000, Kishore Kumar fined Tk 50,000, Jahangir Tk 50,000 and Alamgir Kabir Tk 100,000, he said.
“Any dishonest trader trying to take advantage of the rice market will be caught,” said RAB-5 ASP (CPC-2) Sheikh Mohammad Anwar Hossain, who was involved in the mobile court operation.
The Faridpur administration also found an excess stock of rice at a rice trader’s warehouse in Share Satrashi Bazar.
An operation was conducted based on a tip, said Sadarpur UNO Roksana Rahman.
“The mobile court has fined rice trader Tofazzal Hossain Khan Tk 50,000 for hoarding rice and operating without a license,” she said.
A Rajshahi mobile court has fined two rice mill owners a total of Tk 80,000 for illegally hoarding 5,000 sacks of rice.
Operations were conducted on the Hamim and Aslam rice mills in the town’s Boalia area on Monday, said Rajshahi Additional District Magistrate Subrata Pal. The raid found 4,029 sacks of illegally hoarded rice at the Hamim Agro Food Rice Mill and 1,285 at the Aslam rice mill.
“Hamim has been fined Tk 50,000 and Aslam fined Tk 30,000 over the incident.”