Two cattle markets sit on the same day barely a mile apart at Noymail and Doshmail in Chuadanga Sadar upazila. They have fuelled local feuds and cause long traffic jams on the Chuadanga-Dhaka highway. One runs with the administration's permission; the other has no approval.

A small sum from the Noymail Bhultia bazar market is deposited with the upazila nirbahi officer's office, but the government gets nothing from the Doshmail market. Through long control by influential Awami League figures and a strategy of lawsuits, the government has been cheated of crores of taka in revenue.

Those now controlling the markets say both are run jointly and revenue is being paid to the government.

Both markets are held every Saturday, at Doshmail Badarganj bazar and Noymail Bhultia bazar in Sadar upazila. They are beside the road, and because both sit on the same day, long jams build up on the Chuadanga-Dhaka highway.

Local people say there has long been a feud over the two markets. The people controlling them changed after 5 August, but the newcomers are also split into two groups.

The investigation found that a cattle market was started at Doshmail, or Badarganj, bazar in 1953. Some devout and education-minded people of the time gave land and set up the market as a source of money to keep religious schools running in the area, and a trust was formed for it. Through the trust, the market's income supported Badarganj Kamil Madrasa, neighbouring Jhenaidah Kamil Madrasa, Aliarpur mosque and graveyard, Doshmi Hafizia Madrasa and Lillah Boarding, mosques in the area and a girls' school in Sadhuhati, among others. Any institution set up in the area received financial help from the market in various ways until it was brought under government control.

At some point, however, the market caught the eye of Solaiman Haque Joarder Chhelun, president of the Chuadanga district Awami League and former MP for Chuadanga-1, and his brother Riazul Islam Joarder Toton, former joint general secretary of the district Awami League and former municipal mayor. Through their long efforts, local feuds were created over the market.

Former MP Chhelun Joarder and his brother Toton Joarder exploited the split among the market's controllers. The two brothers moved their pieces through Hasanuzzaman Manik, one of the most influential market traders in the area, general secretary of the Sadar upazila Awami League and former chairman of Kutubpur union parishad. In 2019 the market was moved from Doshmail bazar to Noymail bazar.

Because several influential leaders of the Jhenaidah district Awami League were involved at Doshmail bazar, the market did not move fully to Noymail, and a partial market continued there, creating groups and factionalism.

According to the investigation, the two groups then began holding two separate markets: one at Noymail Bhultia bazar in Chuadanga on Chhelun and Toton's instructions, and another beside Sadhuhati union parishad in Jhenaidah. The educational institutions in the Badarganj area faced a funding crisis, and various local problems arose at Noymail Bhultia bazar.

The Bhultia cattle market ran for a while under Kutubpur UP chairman Hasanuzzaman Manik, known as an Awami League cadre, but Chhelun and Toton had other plans. As with many markets and water bodies in the district, they planned to dodge revenue here by engineering a lawsuit. In 2020 a land ownership case was filed through Abdur Rahman, son of Abdur Rahim of Hasanhati village in Sadar upazila. After the case, a stay order was obtained from the High Court and the market's lease system was cancelled.

People involved say the government used to earn nearly Tk 2 crore a year in revenue from this market. With the lease stopped through the engineered case, the market was brought under khas collection, and since khas collection began the government has been cheated of large sums.

A source at the Chuadanga Sadar upazila nirbahi officer's office said a lease would have fetched bids of at least Tk 2 crore a year. Before the change of government, however, the Awami League people deposited a total of around Tk 12 lakh to Tk 17 lakh a year. Hasanuzzaman Manik would deposit Tk 36,000 a week, counting one market day a week, or more or less as he pleased depending on the market.

An upazila administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said local former MP Solaiman Haque Joarder Chhelun and his brother Riazul Islam Joarder Toton earned crores of taka from the market by evading government revenue.

People involved with the market, speaking anonymously, said Chhelun Joarder and Toton Joarder took three-quarters of the income from the Badarganj market. Not satisfied, they created local feuds and, amid various complications, brought the market to Noymail bazar, where almost all the money went into their pockets. Using the influence of an MP, they not only evaded large amounts of revenue but planned this so that money would not reach the institutions that philanthropists of the time had built to educate the children of poor people, they said.

Former Chuadanga-1 MP Chhelun Joarder and his younger brother Toton Joarder, former mayor of Chuadanga municipality, could not be reached because they are in hiding. Their mobile phone number was also found switched off, so their comment on the allegations could not be obtained.

Chuadanga Sadar upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Nazibul Alam said: "I have newly joined. The deputy commissioner asked me to inspect the market. I went there and spoke to people from both markets. The problem is really complicated. I also learned about the history. I was going to inform the deputy commissioner, but he was transferred that same day. I will discuss the market in detail with the new deputy commissioner. A small amount from the Noymail market probably comes to my office through khas collection. We have no market at Badarganj."

Despite the many allegations against Chhelun Joarder and his younger brother Toton Joarder, no one has yet spoken out publicly. People talk to journalists only on condition of anonymity, out of an unspoken fear, as if the brothers were still running everything even though the Awami League is gone.

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