People return empty-handed from TCB trucks

Some people failed to buy any goods from the truck sales of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) on Monday in Dhaka city as the supply was inadequate.

The government started truck sales across the country on the day to provide soybean oil, sugar and lentil at subsidised rates for the low-income people.

TCB is selling soybean oil at Tk 100 per litre and lentil and sugar at Tk 55 per kg. A person will be eligible to buy a maximum of five litres of soybean oil and two kg of lentils and sugar per day under the OMS programme.

TCB sales will continue in city corporations and district towns until August 26. The sales will remain off on weekends. Around 450 trucks are selling the commodities.

“I have been waiting for around 90 minutes in this hot weather and now the seller says they have run out of goods,” Sufia Begum, 50, said from near a TCB truck.

Sahin Hawlader lost his job during the lockdown and came to a TCB truck sale point to buy commodities at cheaper rates. “I queued up for about two hours. But the seller said only sugar was available,” he said. “It is unfortunate.”

Md Manik Miah, one of the sellers, said the TCB did not provide them enough goods to meet the demand. “Generally, we collect 1,000 litres of soybean oil but today we only had 700 litres. So we were unable to meet the people’s demand,” he said.

People had to wait for a long time because most of the trucks went to the selling points late, he noted.

Mohammad Rajon, a TCB truck seller at Khamarbari, said the trucks collect their goods from TCB stock serially. “It takes a long time. We come to our designated points after receiving goods,” he said.

Rajon said a small number of people could not buy the products as the supply was short.

TCB said they are trying to resolve the matter.

“We have manpower crisis. We’re facing some problems because of lockdown but we’re trying to resolve them. We will increase the amount of goods and the number of trucks as soon as possible,” said TCB Chairman Brigadier General Ariful Hasan. “Hopefully from August 1, we will have adequate supply of products.”