Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former lawmaker Professor Mia Golam Porwar has issued the following statement on 14 April 2020 protesting the government’s recent initiative as they decided to stop open market selling (OMS) of rice instead of punishing those people who had misappropriated huge amount of rice, allocated for the poor sections.

“The country is experiencing lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak. People cannot go to their working place and subsequently they are facing challenges about the source of income.

Under the circumstances, the government declared OMS program for the poor people in order to provide rice at 10 taka per kilogram. But this program came into a halt due to massive corruption and irregularities of those people who were assigned to implement the program. But instead of punishing these corrupted people, the authority has decided to stop this program, which is nothing but a mockery with the people.

People are living a confined life now. In this critical situation, it is the obligation and duty of the government to provide food to every citizen. OMS and rice distribution program have created a hope for the marginalized people. But the countrymen are shocked to see the severe level of misappropriation. The people who have taken the poor people’s food away, particularly in this difficult moment, are enemies to the people. Government has committed an inhuman crime by stopping this program, instead of punishing the culprits. We are protesting and condemning such move of the government and urging them once again to distribute food at free of cost among the poor and impoverished people.