Government's OMS programme will continue until November when of new harvest is likely to come to the market, said Deputy Minister for Food and Disaster Management Asadul Habib Dulu, while inaugurating an OMS centre at the city's South Begunbari area.

With the start of OMS, further rise in the price of rice is unlikely, said Dulu. "But it is a difficult job to prevent the hoarders in the open market system," he added responding to a question.

Under this year's OMS programme, one person may get a maximum of five kilogram rice at Tk14.50 a kg. A dealer will draw an allotment of 500 kg of rice every day unlike the same allocation every alternate day last year, the minister said.

An allocation of 3 lakh metric tons of rice will be distributed through 18,000 dealers across the country with 650 dealers in the capital Dhaka, he said. A total of 421 dealers in Dhaka took delivery of their quota yesterday.

He said that the OMS programme would begin at the upazila level on requisition from the District Controller of Food, adding that the programme was delayed due to the selection process of the dealers.

The minister denied the allegations of gross anomaly in the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme and sale of VGF rice on the black market in the northern region, saying that the army has been entrusted with the programme to prevent any such incident.

He, however, admitted a case where the recipients were given 50 gram less than the allotment through weight manipulation.

He also said that the government is going to provide 900 families in each union with rice at Tk 4 per kg by October 7 under a special village ration programme.