Govt plans to import rice privately: Food Minister

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said, “The government has decided to import rice privately to control prices.

He made the remarks in response to a question from reporters after a meeting at the secretariat on Monday (June 6th).

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said, "It has been decided that rice will be imported privately. Discussions will be held to bring it duty free. We will also ensure that farmers, markets and others are not harmed.'

The food minister said that, a summary of the decision to import rice will be sent to the Prime Minister.

"We are monitoring the market and as a result prices are falling," he said. Even then, it has been decided to import rice to balance the loss of consumers and farmers. It will take about a week to implement this decision.

"We will try our best," he said. But it will be for a limited time, to a limited extent. Considering that the farmers are not harmed in the coming season. We used to import a lot of wheat privately, which would provide a major food support. But since it is not coming, people are getting more dependent on rice. Our production is fine, but stockpilers and unscrupulous traders are taking advantage of the extra pressure on rice. Overall surveillance and operations should continue. Besides, the market will be controlled, if we increase the flow by importing rice privately.