The wholesale grabbing of government-owned land and turning those into so-called political establishments and business ventures is in full swing throughout the capital city. According to reports published in a national daily, the extent of land grabbing extends from one end of the city to the other. The erection of illegal structures on land adjacent to as many as 25 government institutions by some ruling-party affiliated wings gives some idea of the current trend.
Had these so called 'offices' purporting to belong to the various students and labour wings of the ruling party actually carried out some official function, then there would be no brows raised. Yet, as investigative journalism has revealed, the most preferred manner of grabbing government land has been to use the signboard of one or other such body. To add salt to injury, the areas which have witnessed the proliferation of these new offices and establishments have been accompanied by a rise in crime.
The concerned departments or ministries whose land is being acquired unlawfully remain silent spectators to this phenomenon. Even if steps are taken, the powers that be appear helpless in the face of stiff resistance put up by party cadres. One of the best examples of such a scenario is what we are witnessing with the case of LGED's directive to remove all illegal roadside establishments put up in the name of political organs of the ruling party and other and makeshift shops by mid-day, Tuesday. When authorities went to demolish such structures in the Mohakhali area, they ran into stiff resistance of party cadres of a particular ward and demolition could not take place in that Ward. Are we then to assume that a Minister, one who is said to head a particular youth wing is helpless in the face of opposition at street level? Needless to say, such a breakdown in the chain of command within the ruling party does not bode well for the country and order must be restored for the common good.
The commerce minister deserves our thanks. At least he had the moral courage to admit that the prices of essential have spiraled up ahead of the forthcoming month of Ramadan, unlike his predecessor who was all the time convinced that the price was always under control. And there is no doubt, as the minister says, the rise is totally unjustified. Well there is the excuse of flood that will come in handy for those dealers who are constantly on the lookout for natural calamities or religious festivals to exploit the public and make a windfall out of those.
It is only in Bangladesh that prices of essentials are not governed by market laws but by the caprice and whims of a syndicate on whom so far, the governments have had no control. How does one explain the spurt in cost of essentials without any genuine reasons? And this has been happening before every Ramadan While nobody can take issue with the legitimate rise in prices, the problem with our market is that the rise has a ratchet effect; it never comes down.
Since the commerce ministry is sanguine that the rise is aberrant and has decided to deploy monitoring teams to detect the persons responsible for the machination, one would hope that the deviants would be detected and made examples of. Having said that we want to emphasise the fact that any measure, which is abnormal or distorts the system would be more likely to fail. Side by side monitoring, and that has not borne much fruit in the past because of laxity in penalizing the offenders, measures must be set afoot that address the deliberate distortion of prices.
As it is, the profit margin retained by the sellers at various levels is much too high, in some cases more than 100 percent the original cost. This is what the government must also tackle seriously. What must also be addressed are other allied factors that add to the cost at the consumer level like illegal tolls the carriers have to pay from origin to the retailers.
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