Rice and flour are being sold to the poor here under government’s Open Market Sale (OMS) programme through various outlets through creating positive impacts to fixed income group people.

The objective of the rice sale under OMS programme is to help feed the poor at a lower price and arrest the price hike of rice, office sources said.

In the city, the Food Department has set up a total of 17sale centers from where17tons of coarse rice is being sold every day.

Each of the consumers would be able to buy five kg of rice at Taka 30 per kg and five kg of flour at Taka 24 per kg daily from the sale center. Everyday, many poor men and women are purchasing coarse rice from the outlet standing in long queues.

Talking to the correspondent, district controller (DC) of food Antara Mallik said the programme would continue until getting further order from the government.

In reply to a query the DC food said with the introduction of rice sale under OMS programmein the district, the price of both rice and flour is now on the downtrend in the district.

Monitoring and supervising by the officials had been geared up in the district so that any dealers could not sell the OMS rice in black markets to get more profit creating sufferings to the poor, she added.

The poor and fixed income group people here expressed their gratefulness to the government as they are enabling to purchase rice and flour from the outlets as reasonable prices fixed by government.