Cox’s Bazar-2 MP Alamgir Muhammad Mahfuz Ullah Farid in Parliament demanding fair price for salt

The cries of marginal salt farmers in the coastal region of Cox's Bazar and the picture of the extreme crisis of their livelihoods have now echoed in the National Parliament. Cox's Bazar-2 MP Alamgir Muhammad Mahfuz Ullah Farid raised questions in Parliament about why the farmers of Maheshkhali-Kutubdia, who supply the bulk of the country's total salt demand, are being deprived of fair price and why import dependence is being encouraged through syndicates. His informative and emotional speech in the Parliament session highlighting the price disparity and the ill effects of import created a huge stir among the members of...

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The cries of marginal salt farmers in the coastal region of Cox’s Bazar and the picture of the extreme crisis of their livelihoods have now echoed in the National Parliament. Cox’s Bazar-2 MP Alamgir Muhammad Mahfuz Ullah Farid raised questions in Parliament about why the farmers of Maheshkhali-Kutubdia, who supply the bulk of the country’s total salt demand, are being deprived of fair price and why import dependence is being encouraged through syndicates.

His informative and emotional speech in the Parliament session highlighting the price disparity and the ill effects of import created a huge stir among the members of Parliament.

At the beginning of his speech, Alamgir Farid highlighted the sky-high gap between the country’s salt market and production costs. He said, currently the common people of the country are buying and consuming salt at a price of 40 taka per kg. However, our hard-working marginal farmers are forced to sell that salt at the field level at a price of only 4 taka per kg. This incredible price disparity of salt cannot be accepted in any way.

He further said that the actual cost of farmers to produce one maund of salt is currently about 400 taka. However, due to the manipulation of the syndicate, farmers are getting only 200 to 250 taka per maund of salt. As a result, thousands of farming families are on the verge of sitting on the streets today.

MP Alamgir Farid further said in the parliament that the domestic industry has been destroyed by freely importing salt through back-to-back LCs in the name of sodium sulphate. If the process is not stopped and farmers are discouraged from farming, the government will have to import about 2.8 million metric tons of salt from abroad every year.  This will destroy the country’s valuable assets worth thousands of crores of taka.

Directly drawing the attention of the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Industries Minister and Commerce Minister, this central leader of BNP said in a very emotional voice, “Our body was built on salt money, on the price of salt. It is our moral responsibility to save salt farmers. Take immediate effective steps to save this industry earned in exchange for the blood and sweat of farmers.”

According to sources, the matter has been sent to the concerned ministry for serious review. All the concerned quarters are expecting the government to intervene quickly to protect the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people in the coastal region and to fully implement the National Salt Policy-2022.

Photo caption: Cox’s Bazar 2 MP Alamgir Farid is speaking in parliament demanding a fair price for salt.