After newspaper reports on sudden increase the price of watermelon, the administration has launched mobile court in Kushtia watermelon market.

In the drive, two mobile courts have fined four watermelon traders a total of Tk 11,000.

Kushtia district administration executive magistrate Boni Amin and Rizu Tamanna conducted the drive on April 26.

According to mobile courts the common man complained that traders bought watermelons in pieces but sold those in kilograms by weight.

“We checked the documents and saw that most of the traders in the fruit warehouse bought the fruits by weight. But some of them charged higher price when was selling. Even few were earning Tk. 20 per kg. Four of them have been fined.

A fine of Tk 2,000 has been imposed on Zahurul Islam, Tk 3,000 on Abdus Samad and Md. Zaman Traders. Tk 3 thousand to Rabiul Islam and Tk 3 thousand to Monirul Islam. All fines are recovered immediately.

These fines are imposed under Section 19 (1) of the Agricultural Marketing Act 2016.
All the shops are located in front of Kushtia Municipal Market.

Kushtia District Marketing Officer at the Department of Agriculture Rabiul Islam was present during the mobile court drive.

He told to the reporters that according to the Agricultural Marketing Act, there is a provision to earn Tk10 per kg in case of fruits. However, there are special instructions for watermelon. One can’t earn more than 3 to 5 taka per kg.

Even a week before Ramadan, watermelons have been sold at Tk. 25.

At that time relatively large and good quality watermelon was sold at Tk. 26 to 30. Before the start of Ramadan, the price went up to Tk 35/40. Thus, in the last few days, it has risen from Tk. 50 to 55 kg.