The government yesterday launched a special Open Market Sale (OMS) programme, offering rice to ready-made garments workers at Tk 30 per kg to ease their food expenses.
Each worker can buy up to 10kg a month through 66 trucks operating across Dhaka, Savar, Dhamrai, Gazipur, Narayanganj and parts of Chattogram district, according to a Ministry of Food press release.
Each truck will sell five tonnes every Friday, bringing the weekly allocation to 330 tonnes. Sales will continue until further notice, in two sessions — 10:00am to 12:30pm and 2:30pm to 5:00pm — subject to stock availability.
Gazipur will get the largest allocation, with 30 trucks selling 150 tonnes, followed by Narayanganj and Chattogram, with 10 trucks each selling 50 tonnes.
Dhaka will have six trucks selling 30 tonnes, Savar eight trucks selling 40 tonnes and Dhamrai two trucks selling 10 tonnes.
Workers must show their factory identity cards and sign a master roll to buy rice.
The programme comes amid unrest in RMG-sector areas over wage demands.
The Minimum Wage Board, formed early this month, has held two meetings. At Monday’s meeting, the workers’ representative proposed a minimum monthly wage of Tk 32,000.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/rmg-workers-get-rice-tk-30-kg-4323251
