CHATTOGRAM, July 7, 2025 (BSS) - The Food Department has launched the sale of rice and flour in the open market to stabilize the rice market in the city today.

The Open Market Sales (OMS) program, initially launched in 11 wards of the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) under a special program, has now been expanded to offer fair-priced rice and flour in 29 more wards starting today.

Md. Fakhrul Alam, district Food Controller of the District Food Department, said that selling rice and flour under the OMS program began today. On the first day, 11 out of 12 dealers received rice and flour allocation.

He mentioned that the dealers for the initially nominated 29 wards have been finalized and allocation has been made in their names. Rice and wheat are being sold at fair prices in a total of 40 wards starting today.

Food officials explained that each dealer is receiving one ton of rice and one ton of flour. The dealers are selling rice to consumers at TK 30 per kg and flour at TK 24 per kg. It was reported that on November 4 of last year, the Food Department initiated the recruitment of dealers for open market sales (OMS) in 41 wards of the city.

A total of 420 applications were submitted and the existing dealers at that time filed a case in the High Court against the dealer recruitment process.

 
Later, the dealer recruitment process was halted until June 30 by court order. After resolving the complications in the dealer appointment process, the Food Department appointed dealers in 29 more wards in the city on June 26.