Nilphamari vegetable traders in shrouds protest before municipality office

Wholesale vegetable traders in Nilphamari picked an unusual choice of clothing when they decided to surround the municipality office in Saidpur to demand their old marketplace back.

Hundreds of traders, in shrouds and emulating the dead, participated in the protest on Thursday and submitted a memorandum to Amjad Hossain Sarkar, the municipality mayor, in this regard.

Protesters said the kitchen market in Naya Bazar was established 25 years ago and it has been serving as the biggest wholesale market for vegetables in the district ever since.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the district administration temporarily relocated the market two kilometres off the city on privately owned land near the bypass road for social distancing purposes.

There were conditions to ease the transition, such as the market returning to its original place once the coronavirus situation went back to normal and the rent for the new place being waived for all traders.

However, the protesters alleged that in reality they were charged extra rent for conducting business there and with slow business during the past few months of the pandemic, the rent had been a heavy burden on everyone and their families.

Now that the lockdown has been lifted they wish to return to Naya Bazar.

Speaking on the issue, Saidpur Municipality Mayor Amjad Hossain Sarkar said: “I will talk to the administration about everything that is written about in the memorandum.” 

After receiving assurances from the mayor, the protesting traders withdrew their program.