Most of the footpaths in Mirsarai of the district have been illegally occupied by a variety of shops, and are also used for parking CNG-driven auto-rickshaws, cars and buses.
Police and local authorities, however, tend to shift the responsibility for taking measures in this regard to each other.
Owners of different markets have also installed makeshift staircases for movement in the occupied footpaths.
There is a fruit shop and a CNG-driven auto-rickshaw garage near the Bariarhat municipal mosque lane. Another such garage is found near Shantirhat road.
Beside the median strip on Ramgarh road, there are some makeshift fruit shops, and traders of the nearby market allegedly take money from the fruit shop owners.
The roads and highways authorities or the municipal officials are yet to take any measure to evict the illegal shop owners, or to rehabilitate them.
Pedestrians, especially students, use the footpaths every day, risking their lives. Parents also worry about the safety of their children.
Requesting anonymity, a trader said, illegal occupation of footpaths by owners of makeshift stalls had been commonplace for a long time, and the number of such stalls is on the rise.
The local authorities never took any effective measures against them, he said.
Shop owners alleged they had to pay influential ruling party leaders and activists rent every day, and the amount varied between Tk50 and Tk100.
They refused to disclose the identities of the political men who take this rent, saying they would be unable to run their business if they did so.
The illegal occupation of footpaths by makeshift shops and vehicles is also growing in other parts of the upazila, including Thakurdighi, Mithachhara, Mirsarai, Baratakia and Nizampur. The situation bars two vehicles from simultaneously crossing each other as the roads have become narrower.
Residents have also expressed anger at the local authorities for their failure to take any effective measure.
Mayor of Bariarhat municipal SM Taher Bhuiyan said he had verbally permitted a number of poor people to sell seasonal fruits for the time being.
“They will leave at the end of the season. I am not aware of anyone else doing business by occupying roads,” he said, adding that the police would take care of such people.
Mehedi Hasan, in-charge of Jorarganj highway police, said the municipal area was under the jurisdiction of district police.
Sub-inspector of Mirsarai traffic police Mostafa, however, said such allegations should be dealt by mayors and local police stations of individual areas.
“We have nothing to do in this regard,” he added.