An unending BNP-backed transport blockade and sporadic general strikes have robbed capital Dhaka’s markets of their familiar busy look, leaving labourers jobless.
Published : 04 Feb 2015, 06:06 PM
This is the picture a bdnew24.com team saw while visiting Chawk Bazaar, Islampur, Babu Bazaar, Patuatuli, Tanti Bazaar and the other main wholesale markets on Wednesday.
Most shops were shut, and those that were open did paltry business.
These Old Dhaka markets are known across the country as bustling wholesale outlets for cloth, furnishing material, clothes, toys, plastic goods, spices, and grocery.
Buyers from various districts throng them with trading being done from morning until midnight. Traders buy their wares, jointly hire trucks, and carry the goods to their destinations.
These places, known for a cacophony of sounds including hawkers’ calls, porters’ yells, and van operators’ clamour for customers, are now quiet.
They look sparse and spaced out, when, normally, one has to jostle one’s way through thick crowds.
As as a result, businesses and daily wage-earners dependent on the markets find themselves in trouble. Hotels and restaurants have lost their usual hum, and so have the ever busy banks and tea shops.
Porters, cart and van operators, and other daily wage-labourers are without work and livelihood.
People dependent on Old Dhaka’s wholesale markets are becoming increasingly anxious as the non-stop blockade called by the BNP-led alliance has lasted for a month now, without an end or solution in sight.
Businessmen counting daily losses
Islampur’s Karim Mansion has about 30 to 40 shops selling curtain fabrics and cloth. Their owners said their losses were mounting daily with little or no business being done.
The manager of Three Star Fashions, one of the shops in that market, said, “We are in a precarious condition. There was no sale on certain days. In normal times, we sold goods worth at least Tk 60,000. Now, we consider ourselves lucky to sell anything around Tk 5,000.”
Ujjal, of Shefa Bastra Bitan, situated in the same market, said much the same thing. “We are unable to recover our running expenses and the staff salaries. We are entirely in the red,” he lamented.
The wholesale traders said buyers from the districts were staying away, fearing attacks during shutdowns and the blockade.
Retailer Abdus Salam from Jessore’s Nabharon had come to buy cloth at Islampur’s Tong market.
“I come to Dhaka at least four times a month to buy cloth. But this month, I have been here just once because of the general strike and blockade,” he told bdnews24.com.
Kazi Liakat Ali, who trades in curtain material, said, “My daily average transactions used to be almost Tk 100,000. That has dropped to Tk 10,000 because our main buyers, the retailers from the districts, are now few and far between.”
“Earlier, there used to be at least five to six big customers from the districts daily. They used to buy in bulk. Now, only one or two are coming in a week,” he said.”
In January, he had met the establishment expenses from his own pocket, said Liaquat, owner of Sweet Home.
Liakat primarily imports curtain fabrics from China and sells them at wholesale prices in Islampur.
“Transport cost has gone up because of the strike and blockade,” said the importer. “It used to cost me Tk 15,000 to bring a truck-load of goods from the Chittagong port to Dhaka. It now costs anything between Tk 25,000 to Tk 30,000.”
Moslem Uddin, a three-piece garment seller and owner of Lizan Fashion, told bdnews24.com: “Islampur depends on customers from the districts. But they are unable to come because of the present political situation.
“Business, as a result, is low-key and debts are also not being recovered. So, we are unable to repay our loans.”
He had incurred a loss of Tk 30,000 last month, the businessman said.
Mizan, owner of Makkah Three Piece, said, “There is hardly any trading at present. I am opening the shop merely to pass my time.
“Daily transactions are down to Tk 2,000-3,000 when it used to be Tk 20,000-30,000. There are days where there is no business at all.”