The presence of middle income group people in the queues for onion sold from open market sale (OMS) points in the capital is quite remarkable as previously lower income people were the ones who would predominate the crowd.
During visits to different OMS outlets in the capital on Wednesday, Dhaka Tribune found many middle income group people, including private and government job holders, huddled with the poor ones, for buying onion at reduced rates.
Onion at the OMS outlets, run by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), was selling at Tk45 per kg, which sold for Tk90-100 per kg in the market.
The TCB started selling onions at 35 points to prevent the onion market from rising. A buyer can purchase a maximum of two kilos of onion from the spots.
Private bank employee Rezaul Islam stood in the line of buyers in front of the OMS point at Motijheel.
He said it took about an hour for his turn to come and he bought two kg onion from the OMS outlet.
“Standing in queue is bad, but getting onion at Tk45 per kg is a matter of joy,” he said.
Government job holder Motiur Rahman, however, returned empty-handed as there was no stock by the time he reached the point.
“I wanted to buy onion at a cheaper rate, but I found the truck empty,” a disappointed Motiur Rahman told Dhaka Tribune.
TCB dealer Manjur Rahman, who was selling onion at this point, said that people from all classes, specially low and middle income groups, were coming to buy OMS onion.
He said all their 400 kg onion was sold out by 2:30pm.
Visiting the OMS spot at Malibagh, Dhaka Tribune found a huge crowd of buyers and stock of onion ran out quickly.
TCB spokesperson Humayun Kabir told Dhaka Tribune that the current OMS programme would continue until the current volatile price situation eased and there was a plan to increase the allocation of onion per truck.
The TCB has been selling onion at different spots in the city including near National Press Club, Dilkusha Bok Chattar, Khamarbari of Farmgate, Mohammadpur, Mirpur 10, Malibaghbazar, Shantinagarbazar, Kaptanbazar, and Fakirapoolbazar.
On Sunday, India banned onion export which has impacted the country’s onion supply and its prices. Eventually, price for per kg of the commodity escalated by up to Tk47 on Monday
