CPB urges DSCC Mayor to withdraw decision on Gulistan hawkers

The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) has urged Dhaka South City Corporation to withdraw its decision to bar hawkers from running their businesses at the capital’s Gulistan area during day time on working days.

“Hawkers will not be allowed to sell goods on the streets and footpaths in Gulistan until 6:30pm on the weekdays,” announced Dhaka (South) Mayor Sayeed Khokon on Wednesday.

“The decision will come into effect from Sunday,” he added.

The hawkers however, would be allowed to run their business anytime during Fridays and Saturdays, Mayor Sayeed said in his announcement.

On Saturday, CPB President Mujahidul Islam Selim came down hard on the Dhaka South mayor for the decision without arranging any alternative.

“The hawkers will not be able to run their families if they are forced to run businesses only in the evening,” he said at a gathering of hawkers in front of the National Press Club.

“Are you going to feed them and their families then?” he asked.

Selim declared that the mayor’s decision will not be accepted and called upon him to sit and discuss possible solutions.

Bangladesh Hawkers Union arranged the rally, from where a procession was taken out later.

Convener of the platform Abdul Hashem said that hawkers would lay a siege to the city corporation office if they were not allowed on the footpaths on Sunday.

“We will stay there until the decision is changed,” he said.