Govt to protect interest of salt farmers: Tofail

Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed today said the government did not give permission to import salt to protect the interest of salt farmers.

"There was pressure on me to give permission for importing salt last year but we did not give the permission because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked us to look after the interest of salt cultivators," said Tofail Ahmed while addressing a meeting of salt farmers.

He said when BNP was in power fertilizer was smuggled to Myanmar and salt was imported from there.

But Awami League government took steps to stop it, he said, adding that adequate salt is now being produced in the country.

Farmers produced 3.1 lakh tones of salt in the last season and in the current season they have so far produced 3.44 lakh tones, he added.

Tofail Ahmed said next parliament election will be held in 2019 under the present government.

Cox`s Bazar district AL organized the meeting with its president Sirajul Mostafa in the chair. District unit general secretary Mujibur Rahman, Zila Parishad chairman Mostaq Ahmed Chowdhury, Saimum Sarwar Kamol, MP and Asheq Ullah Rafiq, MP, among others, addressed it.

Source: BSS