KALADAN NEWS
Dated:
October14, 2002.
PRICE-HIKE OF RICE
MAKE PEOPLE STARVE IN ARAKAN
By Our Correspondent:
Maungdaw, October 14: The price of
rice hikes up over
twofold in northern Arakan, western
part of
compared to previous two months and
poor people of the
area are now facing starvation,
said a trader of
Maungdaw.
At present, in northern Arakan the prices of
essentials have gone up to
unprecedented level. Rice
costs Kyats
400-560 per Pri (1 Pri = 2 kgs ), soybean
Kyats 2,300 per Viss (1 Viss = 1.75 kgs ),
onion
Kyats 400
per Viss, garlic between Kyats
700 to 900
per Viss,
dry chilli 1,400 to 1,500 per Viss,
suger
Kyats 550 per Viss,
salt between Kyats 90 to100 per
Viss, potato Kyats
350 to 400 per Viss, pea Kyats 600
per Viss,
green chilli Kyats 600 per
kg, egg plant
Kyats 250 per kg, a packet of 400 gms
of Chinese
milk powder Kyats
1,000 and one can ( 250 gms ) of
condensed milk Kyats
400. Beef Kyats 2,000
to 2,200
per Viss,
mutton Kyats 1,900 to 2,500 per Viss,
chicken Kyats
2,200 per Viss, egg Kyats
50 each,
petrol one gallon Kyats 1,400 to 1,900, a cup of tea
Kyats 60, the first grade fish Kyats 1,600 per kg, the
second grade fish Kyats 1,000 and the third grade fish
Kyats 800
per kg, he further added.
According to the government sources, price-hike is
created by insincere and crocked
businessmen who
hoard rice and paddy.
When asked some traders at Maungdaw
told that the
military government has exported
much rice and paddy
leaving nothing for the people of
the country. So, the
price of rice is hiking up
unusually.
According to the consumers, the military junta has
exported huge quantity of rice and
paddy to
neighboring
the people of Arakan. Therefore,
the price of rice is
skyrocketing.
The price-hike of the essentials in Arakan has taken
the people by surprise, as it has
not developed
through a gradual process. For this
reason, most of
the poor families are facing
starvation and some of
them becoming beggars and even
prostitutes knowingly
or unknowingly. They include all
communities such as,
Rohingyas, Rakhings
and Hindus, said another trader.
Not only the general people but also the rice traders
are restricted to carry rice from
one township to
another without permits issued by
the authority.
Therefore, the traders are mostly using illegal ways
to carry rice from place to place
bribing the
authorities. Most of the traders
who did not bribe the
authorities, while carrying rice to
northern Arakan
from the townships of Mann Aung, Kyaukpru and Sittwe
( Akyab),
were arrested, said a trader of Sittwe.
The official exchange rate is 6.80 Kyats
to one
dollar but in black market it is
1,250 Kyats to one
dollar and 21.00 Kyats to one Bangladesh Taka in
Burma- Bangladesh border, said our sources.
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Editor
Kaladan Press Network