Lower-grade officers and employees at the ministry of home affairs have demanded that their jobs be placed under the police department simply because they want to enjoy the facility of food rations, officials said.
The home ministry, after repeated requests from its 194 lower-grade officers and employees, approached the finance ministry last week for assistance in this regard.
Officials said the lower grade officers of the ministry of home had long been demanding food rations facility amid rising food prices in the market. But the ministry of finance turned down the request.
Having failed to persuade the finance ministry, the home ministry employees now want their jobs to be placed under the police department to get the facility of food rations enjoyed by the members of police, Border Guard Bangladesh, fire service, coast guards and prison staff.
Besides, the facility is also enjoyed by the officers and employee working under the ministry of defence and the armed forces division.
The ministry of finance deals with the approval process of food rations under which the government provides rice, wheat, flour, pulses, milk and edible oil at subsidised rates.
Economists said such unusual demand by the lower grade employees of the home ministry proved that food security remained a major concern for lower-  and fixed-income groups.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies director general MK Mujeri said majority of the population spent the lion’s share of their income on food.
The fixed income people are struggling to cope with the rising cost of living, particularly continuous food price hike, he said.
Officials at the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said food inflation stood over 10 per cent in the last two years. They, however, said that there had been a decreasing trend in food inflation since last February.