Brahmanbaria municipality did not receive the lease value it wanted when it invited tenders for its only sacrificial animal market. The municipality will therefore run the market at the Bhadughar bus terminal in the district town itself. The market will operate from 13 June until the day before Eid.

The market, the only one of its kind under the municipality, is held every year for four days before Eid. Last year the municipality leased it out for those four days for Tk 70 lakh. This year it published a notice on 28 May inviting tenders, setting an estimated lease value of Tk 1 crore for the four days.

The deadline for submitting tenders was noon on Monday, 10 June, with the tenders to be opened at 1pm the same day. Only two tender schedules were sold in that time, and both were submitted. When the box was opened on Monday, one tender offered Tk 50 lakh and the other more than Tk 65 lakh, Tk 35 lakh below the municipality's estimate. Having failed to get the desired value, the municipality met the same day and decided to run the market itself.

Abdul Quddus, chief executive officer of Brahmanbaria municipality, said: "We tried to find a leaseholder at the estimated value but could not. A market cannot be leased below the government value. Now we have no time. To call a fresh tender, a notice has to be published in newspapers allowing at least 15 days, and that time is not available now. So no new tender was called. Under the law, we now have to run the market ourselves, though that is very hard."

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