The government has taken up security measures, including police deployment, to protect the main routes of the essentials supply chain in the wake of hartal and blockade enforced by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the BNP.
Directed by the commerce ministry, the deputy commissioners – under the supervision of the divisional commissioners – had already started providing long-route goods carriers with police protection, said a senior official of the ministry yesterday.
Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that the ministry had instructed all ministries, including the home, and divisional and district commissioners in this regard.
Teams of highway and local police were providing security for 50-70 trucks carrying commodities, raw materials and export items on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, ministry officials said.
The management of the commodities supply chain has been interrupted for the past one and a half months because of the violence during the hartals and prolonged blockades enforced by the opposition parties.
Commerce ministry sources said the government would try to free the Khulna-Dhaka route with similar measures.
Ministry officials expressed hope that farmers would not have to discard their produce in the street anymore.
Khulna Divisional Commissioner Abdul Jalil yesterday sent a letter to the Dhaka divisional commissioner to provide police protection for goods-laden trucks up to Daulatdia ferry terminal from where the Khulna DC will take charge.
Rustom Ali, president of Bangladesh Covered Van and Truck Owners’ Association, told the Dhaka Tribune that some transportation routes had been free from political violence, such as the Dhaka-Benapole route, for two days.
A few trucks from North Bengal had arrived in Dhaka in the past two days with special police protection, he said.
“But the Feni-Sitakunda route was disrupted yesterday because of political violence and hartal.”
Meanwhile, the rent for trucks had also declined to Tk30,000-40,000 from Tk100,000 in the past three days, said the president of the truck owners’ association. Truck fares sharply rose to Tk100,000 ahead of the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Molla.
