The 16,000 hawkers and street vendors in Chittagong have been facing an acute fall in their sales during the hartals and blockade, according to the general secretary of Chittagong Sammilto Hawkers Federation.
Masud Rana says the lower presence of people on the streets and closure of makeshift shops during the opposition programmes are the common factor for such low business.
Jamil Ahmed, a bus driver, said bus owners were not interested to run their vehicles on the roads during a shutdown or blockade. “As the hartals or strikes are being enforced continuously, I cannot earn the money which I need to run my family,” he said.
Abbas Uddin, the bus owner, said his vehicle had been vandalised 10 times in the last month alone by picketers, discouraging him from bringing the vehicle out of the garage.
Kamal Mia, who sells betel leaves at GEC Intersection, said they faced a lot of sufferings due to hartals or blockade as sales are very low on that days.
“I sold betel leaves of Tk200 till 9pm today (on November 27) while on regular days I would have earned up to Tk1,200 by this time,” said Bashir, who is the sole bread earner of a six-member family.
Jashim Uddin, a hawker who sells t-shirts in the city’s Number-2 Gate area, said he used to sell products worth over Tk2,000, but on hartal days he can hardly manage to earn Tk400 to Tk500. He said he could make sales of only Tk100 by 3:00pm on Thursday.
Visiting major thoroughfares of the port city on Wednesday and Thursday, this correspondent found that most of the makeshift shops of the hawkers, mainly garment sellers, remained closed.
Suman, a bagger in Dewanhat area, said he was surviving by eating waste food from dustbins from different road sides as he could earn nothing from November 25 to yesterday.
Afsana Sultana, a SSC candidate, said she was worried that the schedule of her upcoming exam may be rescheduled repeatedly due to continuous political unrest.
Many businessmen in Chittagong are dependent on the port. Mohammad Nasir Uddin, a clearing and forwarding agent, said his importers’ goods were in the dockyard but he could not shift those to the real owners due to the unrest.
Mofizur Rahman, a roadside restaurant owner in the city’s AK Khan Intersection, said picketers burnt his restaurant’s valuables into ashes on November 27.
Dhaka Tribune found that on the same day, strikers set a new motorcycle on fire from a showroom of a private motorcycle company near City Gate area.
AJM Nasir Uddin, general secretary of the city unit of ruling Awami League, urged the opposition to refrain from conducting subversive activities during hartal and blockade.
Dr Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of the city unit of BNP, said they were continuing their political movements peacefully.
He blamed the ruling party for conducting sabotage during their movement periods.
Banaz Kumar Majumdar, additional commissioner (crime and operation) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said protesters conducted violence all on a sudden that causes huge damage for public properties.
The law enforcing agencies have strong vigilance and taking action against the protesters who are conducting sabotage across the city, he said.
