The High Court has stayed the setting up of a temporary cattle market for Eid-ul-Azha in two blocks of Eastern Housing in Aftabnagar and part of Sun Valley in the capital. Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) had issued a lease notice for a market at the site.

A bench of Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque and Justice Ainun Nahar Siddiqua passed the order, along with a rule, on 5 May after hearing a writ filed by a local resident.

Lawyers Md Anwar Hossain (Hussain Anwar) and Mohammad Ali Khan appeared for the petitioner.

The DNCC issued the lease notice on 29 April. Column 3 of the notice listed a cattle market on 'the vacant land of Badda Eastern Housing Aftabnagar blocks M-4, M-5, N-4 (part of the north side of the lake) and Sun Valley (part)'.

Local resident Azad Ali filed the writ on 4 May. The respondents include the LGRD secretary, the director general of the Department of Environment, the administrator and the chief estate officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, and others concerned.

Lawyer Anwar Hossain said the area is a privately owned residential area where the city corporation has no property. Lakhs of people live there, and there are schools, colleges and a university that are affected, which is why a local resident filed the writ. The court has issued a rule and a stay, so no cattle market can be held this time in the two Aftabnagar blocks and part of Sun Valley, he said.

Earlier, on 4 May, the High Court stayed a temporary Eid-ul-Azha cattle market in the Dhaka South City part of Aftabnagar on a writ filed by another lawyer. Dhaka South City Corporation had issued its lease notice on 21 April, with column 5 listing a cattle market on the vacant land of Aftabnagar (Eastern Housing) blocks E, F, G and H, sections 1 and 2. Lawyer Yunus Ali Akond had challenged the legality of column 5, and the order was given after hearing that writ.

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