The High Court has further extended its order staying the leasing process for a cattle market at Aftabnagar in the capital ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. The petitioner, lawyer Dr Md Yunus Ali Akond, confirmed this to Jago News.

The order was given on Sunday (28 May), the date fixed for hearing the rule and order in the writ, by a High Court bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Mohammad Showkat Ali Chowdhury.

In court on Sunday, Dr Md Yunus Ali Akond argued the petition himself. For the state, Assistant Attorney General Md Selim Azad appeared, with Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Saifuzzaman (Zaman) and Assistant Attorneys General Md Samiul Alam Sarkar, Julfia Akter and Ashiq Rubayet.

The petitioner said the court had stayed the leasing process for the cattle market on 22 May. That stay expired today and the matter came up for hearing, and the order has now been extended by another two months.

On 22 May, after a preliminary hearing of the writ, the same bench stayed the leasing process for a cattle market at Aftabnagar ahead of the coming Eid-ul-Azha. It also issued a rule asking why Dhaka North City Corporation's (DNCC) leasing of the vacant land from Block B to Block H of Badda Eastern Housing, Aftabnagar, should not be declared illegal, and asked those concerned to reply within seven days.

Seeking to protect the environment, Supreme Court lawyer Md Yunus Ali Akond filed the writ on 15 May asking for a direction not to hold a cattle market at Aftabnagar. He filed it in the public interest with the relevant High Court section.

The respondents are the local government ministry, Dhaka North City Corporation, the DNCC's chief land officer, the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (Rajuk), Eastern Housing and the Dhaka deputy commissioner.

On 2 May, on behalf of the Local Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, the DNCC property department issued a lease tender notice signed by its chief estate officer Mohammad Sahe Alam. The tender mentioned a cattle market for five days including Eid-ul-Azha. In the first phase, tender documents were to be sold on 15 May, and on 16 May from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. After sales in the second, third and fourth phases, tender boxes and envelopes were to be opened up to 19 June and the schedule given to the highest bidder in the presence of representatives.

The vacant land from Block B to Block H of Badda Eastern Housing, Aftabnagar, is part of Badda union parishad. The North City Corporation has invited leases for markets to sell sacrificial cattle at seven places, including Aftabnagar.

Before the writ, Sheikh Mahmud Ujjal applied to the city corporation mayor on behalf of residents. The application said people living in Jahirul Islam City (Aftabnagar) suffer badly for about a month before and after Eid-ul-Azha because of the temporary market. Because the cattle and goat market sits on the main road, residents face great difficulty getting around. Ambulances cannot get in to take a sick person to hospital, and it becomes hard even to carry the body of someone who has died.

The application also said the cattle and goat market seriously harms the living environment of the residential area, with animal waste of all kinds heavily polluting it.

It added that the main road of Jahirul Islam City (Aftabnagar) is also badly damaged, leaving potholes all year round and causing great difficulty for all residents travelling on it.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.