A government market monitoring team yesterday gave approval to sell 339 sacks of sugar which it had seized earlier from godowns of three traders at Thakurgaon Station Road on charges of illegal hoarding.
The team led by Additional District Magistrate Abdul Khaleq seized 146 sacks from the godown of Shajahan Khan, 159 sacks from Mokbul Hossain's godown and 34 sacks from Yakub Ali's godown on Sunday.
Magistrate Khaleq told The Daily Star the three sugar traders failed to show any valid document of approval for stocking the sugar.
Considering the crisis of sugar in the local market, the monitoring team, however, yesterday gave permission to the three traders to sell those in local market at government fixed price.
A meeting was also held between local sugar traders and district administration yesterday afternoon with Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Shah Alam in the chair.
Shajahan Khan, one of the three traders, informed the meeting that those sacks, which were found in his godown on Sunday, were allotted to a trader in Dhaka by Thakurgaon Sugar Mills authority.
He bought the delivery order (DO) from that Dhaka-based trader and lifted 146 sacks of sugar to his godown.
During discussion, he admitted that such stocking was illegal. "We have been doing this for about 20 years," he added.
Source : The Daily Star
