OMS rice for garment workers from May 1

OMS rice for garment workers from May 1
Wed, Mar 18th, 2009 8:00 pm BdST

Source: Bangladesh's First Online Newspaper

Dhaka, Mar 18 (bdnews24.com)—The government will start selling cheaper rice to 30 lakh garment workers from May 1 as textile exporters reel under the global financial meltdown, the labour minister says.

Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said Wednesday after a meeting with a BGMEA delegation that they would sell the staple to workers, mostly women, at Tk 18 a kg against the retail price of Tk 24.

BGMEA gave a list of 30 lakh garments workers to the food ministry for allotment of rice for them under Open-Market Sale programme.

BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedi, who led a 32-strong delegation to the meeting with the minister, also said the government wanted a list of garments workers and they submitted it.

He said they were issuing IDs for the workers.

The government was prepared to launch the sale from Mar 20, but the readymade garment industry lacked infrastructural facilities, he added.

The minister said he asked the prime export industry to work through coordination between owners, workers and managements.

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