The upazila administration in Dighinala, Khagrachhari, has seized 21 metric tonnes of government fertiliser that a dealer had stored illegally, and fined the dealer Tk 15,000 for keeping public fertiliser outside the designated warehouse. Upazila nirbahi officer and executive magistrate Faria Sultana confirmed the action on Friday (18 September).

The raid took place on Thursday afternoon at SS Traders, a BCIC fertiliser dealership in No. 2 Boalkhali union. According to the administration, the dealer had stocked fertiliser in a hidden, unlisted warehouse instead of the government-registered one. Acting on a tip-off, the mobile court found 21 tonnes in excess of the official allocation, declared it illegal and seized it.

Faria Sultana said the seized fertiliser has been placed in the custody of the upazila agriculture officer as part of the legal process, and that the manager of SS Traders was fined Tk 15,000 under the Fertiliser Management Act 2006 (amended 2018) for holding allocated fertiliser outside the designated store.

The seizure comes as complaints of fertiliser not being available at the government price surface in several districts in the middle of the Aman season, while the agriculture minister maintains there is no shortage and that a ring is trying to hoard supplies. The Ministry of Agriculture has opened a control room and monitoring cells are working in all 64 districts; the Dighinala raid is part of that enforcement.

Based on reporting by Ittefaq's Khagrachhari correspondent. Source: Ittefaq