A police task force has uncovered a huge amount of hoarded rice from the warehouse of rice tycoon Abdur Rashid in the Khajanagar area of Kushtia.
The task force inspected 13 warehouses of Rashid Agro Food Products Ltd and concluded that that rice sacks were first stored at least four to five months ago.
Talking to reporters after the inspection, Kushtia Sadar Assistant Commissioner (Land) Saiful Islam expressed his surprise that Abdur Rashid had been sitting on a huge stock of rice while the market price for the staple has continued to rise over the last month.
“The major supply of fine rices, particularly Miniket, is generated from Kushtia,” he said. “They (rice mill owners) have formed a syndicate. They have hoarded paddy and rice for swindling huge sums from the pockets of general people.”
Abdur Rashid is also the president of the Bangladesh Rice Mill Owners’ Association. His company was fined Tk50,000 for hoarding the rice.
The assistant commissioner also mentioned that the sales ledger at Rashid Autorice Mills Ltd showed that the mill gate price of Miniket was Tk56.40 per kilogram on Monday compared to Tk51.50 just a month ago.
Also Read- Kushtia millers raise rice prices again
Media reports on the recent rice price anomaly prompted Kushtia Deputy Commissioner Md Zahir Raihan to call an emergency meeting with officials on August 30. He gave an ultimatum to the mill owners to rein in the soaring prices within 24 hours.
The mill owners did not take heed to the warning, instead claiming that they were compelled. They noted that paddy prices at the growers’ level have been high as production in the preceding Boro season was hampered by floods across the country.
However, a recent intelligence agency report has revealed that major rice mills in Kushtia are sitting on huge stocks of rice.
The warehouses of Abdur Rashid have a storage of about 200,000 tons of rice, according to the report.
The report also mentioned that at least 70 mills in Kushtia have abnormally high stocks.