100-year-old government market grabbed

According to local sources,  132 influential persons grabbed 1.6 acre-land of the market and built up structures. They have been noticed from the district land office to remove their establishments immediately. The municipality authorities and the deputy commissioner also ordered them to free the market place in November 3. But, still they are running their business illegally defying the orders. The government is losing huge amount of revenue every year and the marketplace is decreasing gradually causing suffer to the traders. According to the sources, special market sits on Friday and Monday in a week. Traders from several areas come to the market to sell their goods including cows, goats, hens and ducks. On the other hand, local bazar sits every morning. Thousands of buyers come each market-day and goods more than Tk2 crore are sold. The government earned Tk17lakh as revenue from the market last year. If the grabbed land can be freed, the revenue will be double, locals opine. The traders from long distance come earlier as they have to arrange the makeshift shops. But, they suffer a lot due to want of adequate places. Azizul Haque, a rice trader, said he came to the place from a long distance in previous day and he had to stay there at night. But he faced problems for want of place. Mayor Syful Islam said some local influential persons had grabbed half percent of the marketplace and set up establishments defying laws. The traders faced various problems as the large remained under the grabbers. Gradually the market is becoming narrow due to nonstop grabbing, he added. Ramkrishna Barman, upazila assistant land officer, said the grabbers had been noticed several times to evict their establishments. But they did not give any heed to their orders. “Meanwhile, I have informed the incident to the deputy commissioner,” he added.