Four traders were fined Tk 40,000 for selling onion at higher prices and storing the commodity in the port city today.

They were fined during separate drives at Khatunganj wholesale market and Pahartali kitchen market in Chattogram.

During a drive at Pahartali kitchen market this morning, a team of the Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection (DNCRP) found that a shop named M/s Bachamia Sawdagor has written 'no onion' in the price list of products.

Finding it suspicious, the team searched a godown of the shop and found 36 sacks of onions weighing 1.7 tonnes stacked inside, said Rana Dev Nath, assistant director of the DNCRP's Chattogram division.

The trader was fined Tk 20,000 for selling onion at higher prices by showing the 'no onion' sign, said the official adding that the directorate fined another shop Kalu Shah Enterprise Tk 20,000 for selling onion at higher prices.

Meanwhile, a mobile court led by the Executive Magistrate Md Omar Faruk of the district administration fined two wholesale traders at Khatunganj wholesale hub Tk 10,000 each in the afternoon.

The magistrate said during the drive they found that most of the wholesale shops and warehouses at Khatunganj had no onion in their storage, which is unusual.

The traders claimed that they have already sold out all the previously stored onions, he said.