Temporary qurbani cattle haats will be held at 18 locations in Dhaka's two city corporation areas this Eid-ul-Azha: nine in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and nine in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC). Traders have started bringing animals. Though the haats have not yet really got going, animals have already spread beyond the designated sites onto roads and alleys, causing hardship.

Besides these 18, sacrificial animals will also be sold at the permanent livestock haats at Sarulia in Demra (DSCC) and Gabtoli (DNCC). But questions have been raised about the siting of most of the 18 temporary haats whose tenders the two corporations have finalised. Residents complain that some haats stretch into neighbourhood lanes, which will cause serious hardship for people heading home before Eid. Haats on roads and lanes also make it hard for people to get to and from homes and offices, and the stench makes the neighbourhoods almost unbearable.

The departments concerned at DSCC and DNCC say the Eid-ul-Azha cattle haat is part of a religious festival, and citizens will have to accept some inconvenience, because there is no open space in the city for haats other than roads. They say they will make sure citizens' hardship is kept low.

Until 2016, the DNCC and DSCC leased temporary qurbani haats on various fields in Dhaka, but most of these spread beyond the fields into the surrounding lanes and drew wide criticism. In August 2017 the Local Government Division directed that cattle haats should not be held on fields, and the two bodies gradually stopped leasing fields. This year, however, the DNCC has finalised a tender for a haat on the field of an educational institution.

Meanwhile, a lawyer recently filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking a directive to hold cattle haats in open spaces rather than on roads or highways. The local government secretary, religious affairs secretary, home secretary, Dhaka police commissioner and Dhaka's two mayors have been made respondents.

Eid-ul-Azha will be held on 29 June. Under city corporation rules, qurbani haats are to run for a total of five days, starting three days before Eid. But lessees began putting up bamboo poles and canopies on the roads about a week before Eid, and animals have started arriving at many haats from across the country.

The DNCC's estate department leases and supervises the qurbani haats. According to its list, temporary haats in Dhaka North will be held at:

• the empty land from blocks E to H of Eastern Housing, Aftabnagar, Badda
• the empty land beside Kawla Shial Danga in Dakshinkhan
• the empty land from Brindaban in Uttara Sector 17 north to the BGMEA
• the Bhatara (Sayed Nagar) cattle haat
• the empty land of Rajdhani Housing and Bosila Garden City beside the 40-foot road in Bosila, Mohammadpur
• the empty land in Section 6 (Eastern Housing) of Mirpur ward 6
• the empty land of the Rahman Nagar residential project at Kachkura Bepari Para in ward 44
• the playground of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute
• the empty land of Jamalpur Properties north of Khanpara, Khilkhet

Cattle will also be sold at the permanent Gabtoli haat.

The DNCC leases a haat on the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute playground every year, but it is not confined to the field. On Thursday, 22 June, bamboo poles were being put up on the roads outside the field to make space for selling animals. Traders had begun bringing cattle, though sales had not started.

Local resident Moshiur Rahman complained that the field can hold at most some five hundred animals, but 10,000 to 15,000 animals come to the haat every year, and the haat then spills onto all the surrounding roads. "It will be the same this time, and citizens' hardship will grow."

The haat has been leased by Md Hossain Khan. He said the DNCC has told them animals can be sold on the surrounding roads as well as on the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute field, and they are preparing accordingly, but arrangements will be made so that people's movement is not hampered.

Preparations were seen for other DNCC haats to be set up on roads in the same way.

DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam told Jago News that the qurbani haat becomes a festival at Eid-ul-Azha, and the people of the area where the haat is held enjoy it most. "But I know the haats cause some problems for residents of those areas. Instructions will be given to those concerned at the DNCC so that these problems do not occur."

According to the DSCC's list, temporary qurbani haats will be held at:

• the open area beside the Institute of Leather Technology College in Hazaribagh
• the empty land around the Postogola crematorium ghat
• the empty land around Meradia Bazar in Khilgaon
• the empty land around Donia College in Jatrabari
• the open area beside the Dholaikhal truck terminal
• the empty land around Rahmatganj Club in Lalbagh
• the empty land around Amulia Model Town
• the empty land around Maitri Club at Khilgaon Railgate Bazar (Shahjahanpur)
• the empty land beside Little Friends Club
• the empty land along the Bishwa Road beside Kamalapur Stadium

Sacrificial animals will also be sold at the permanent Sarulia haat.

At most of the places named in the DSCC list, no empty land was seen. Almost all the haats were being set up on roads and highways, and residents object most to the south city's haats.

For example, a tender has been finalised for a haat in the open area beside the Dholaikhal truck terminal, but on Thursday, 22 June, no empty space was found there. Space for selling animals was being made with bamboo poles on Dholaikhal road itself. Traders are bringing animals from across the country, and the haat has already spread beyond the road into nearby lanes. Dholaikhal resident Moin Uddin fears that three or four days before Eid it will stretch from Dayaganj crossing to Raisaheb Bazar.

"The DSCC leases a haat here every Eid," he told Jago News. "Traffic on the road stops, and you cannot even walk on the lanes nearby. Yet the DSCC's tender notice said the haat would be held in an open space."

Borhan Uddin lives in the Shahjahanpur railway colony. "Every time, the Shahjahanpur railway field is leased," he told Jago News. "But the cattle spread beyond the field to the front of every building. Last year cattle were even tied under the stairs of our building. Dung and urine piled up. You cannot walk around in shoes or sandals. We could not even do our shopping for daily essentials."

Mahbub, another resident, works for the railway. "Everyone else has leave before Eid, but we do not. I have to go to the office barefoot, and cow dung splashes on my clothes. I have to wash my hands and feet at the office before going on duty. This year it may be even worse."

A haat has been leased for the empty land around Donia College in Jatrabari, but there is no open space there. Cattle haats are being set up on both sides of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in the area, disrupting long-distance traffic.

DSCC estate officer Moniruzzaman told Jago News that there is open space in the areas where haats have been leased, but pressure on the haats grows just before Eid. The DSCC has formed monitoring teams to keep order, and it will give priority to making sure citizens face no problems.

Lawyer Eunus Ali Akond filed a public-interest writ in the High Court on 5 June seeking a directive to hold cattle haats in open spaces instead of on roads or highways. The local government secretary, religious affairs secretary, home secretary, Dhaka police commissioner and the two Dhaka mayors were made respondents. But Eunus Ali Akond said the writ had not been heard as of 22 June.

He said no hearing date could be obtained before Eid after the writ was filed, and it will be heard after Eid. He did not answer when asked what citizens would gain from a hearing after Eid.

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