5m poor families to get rice at Tk 15 a kg for 5 months: food minister

The government will provide rice to 5 million poor families at Tk 15 per kg for five months from March. 

The government plans to provide 10 million families with 10 kilograms of rice under the Vulnerable Group Feeding programme in the upcoming Ramadan, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said at his office on Thursday.

“We wish to give the good quality Atap rice brought from Myanmar in Ramadan.” 

The quantity of flour sold under the Open Market Sale will also be increased, he said. 

This is the biggest distribution programme since independence, Sadhan said, adding that rice and flour are distributed through 2,500 dealers across the country. 

“The OMS is not carried out at this time of the year, we are giving rice at Tk 30 per kg and flour at Tk 24 per kg under the programme this year.”
He claimed Bangladesh has enough stock of rice to meet the demand.