To rein in the soaring price, nine private business groups have opened up 30 makeshift sale centres adjacent to different retail markets in the port city to sell food items at a fair price.

Abul Khair Group was the pioneer of such a sale centre at Sagarika intersection that opened on March 15 with four items, including sugar, pulse, husked pea seed and wheat.

It also opened five other outlets at Agrabad Badamtali, Aturar Dipot, Bahodderhat, Chawkbazar and Bandartilla the following day.

Seven other importers followed suit in couple of days.

Of them, TK Group opened stalls at Karnaphuli Complex at Sholashahar No. 2 Gate, Karnaphuli Market at Choumuhani, Kazir Dewry Bazar and Bahadderhat while Masud & Brothers started its sale at two stalls at Nimtala and Rubi Gate near Polytechnic Institute.

PHP Group opened up seven outlets at Sagarika Road, Rubi Gate opposite to PHP office, Shitalpur, Bara Kumira, Barabkunda, Hathazari Bazar and Mohorigonj of Feni.

Bismillah Stores launched the sale at Colonel Hat, Siraj Ud Doula Road and Jhautala Rail Crossing while S Alam Group of Companies at Sholashahar and Sagarika.

Imam Group of Industries has opened the stalls at Anderkilla General Hospital and on the north side of Karnaphuli Bridge and M/s Alam & Brothers at GPO.

Md Ilias Brothers started selling the commodities at a fair price at three stalls since March 26.

These makeshift sale centres are selling a kilogram of pulse at Tk 44, husked pea seed at Tk 24, sugar at Tk 32, flour at 25, coarse flour (atta) at Tk 20, wheat at Tk 18, gram (chick pea) at Tk 44, onion at Tk 19, garlic at Tk 52 and super refined palm oil at Tk 55.

The government agencies of Ansar and VDP (Village Defence Party) are also selling essential food items in a fair price under Operation Commodity Items -2007 in the port city that began on March 25.

They have set up three makeshift stalls at Bahadderhat Bazar, Jhautala Bazar and Rubee Gate areas.

The sale at fair price is drawing huge consumers especially from lower and lower middle class. They throng the outlets to buy their daily commodities.

The Open Market Sale (OMS) of rice that started under the supervision of Department of Food on March 18 should be intensified, the consumers said.

Fatema, a garment worker, expressed her satisfaction over the sale saying it would help her feed the five-member family.

The sale had a direct impact on the retail markets, bringing down the prices of food items like sugar, onion and oil in last few days.

Sugar, which was selling at Tk 35 to Tk 36 per kg, is now available at Tk 33 per kg at city markets since Friday.

The price of onion also comes down to Tk 19 from Tk 22 per kg while price of palm oil remains steady at Tk 55 per litre.

Price of edible oil also shows fall, selling at Tk 67 as against the previous price of Tk 69 per litre.

Bashir, a seller of Khwaza Garibe Newaj Store at Karnaphuli Market, said decrease in wholesale market rate helped prices of essentials come down at the retail markets.

The prices of different types of rice, however, are still high as a section of the private importers are reluctant to sell at a fair price.

Abul Khair Group is selling boiled rice at Tk 19 at its stalls.

The traders, except Abul Khair Group, expressed their inability to sell rice at a fair price as they usually do not import rice.

Abul Bashar Chowdhury, managing director of Masud & Brothers, said several business groups are preparing to import rice from India or any other countries to sell them at a fair price within a month.

Meanwhile, Food Department started to sell boiled rice at Tk 15.25 per kg at three points in the port city on March 18 under a month-long Open Market Sale (OMS) programme.

But many of the customers are to go back home empty-handed due to insufficient supply at these stores against huge demand.

The department started the OMS through only three selected dealers allowing each of them to sell a maximum of 510 kg of rice a day.

It will start sale of rice at 41 wards in the port city through 82 dealers under OMS programme soon, sources at District Food Control office said.