Sultanpur Bara Bazar, on the bank of the Pransayer canal in the heart of Satkhira town, is the district's oldest wholesale and retail market. Vegetables, fruit, fish, meat and every kind of daily necessity worth several crore taka are bought and sold there every day.

The market has government tin sheds for fish, meat and rice sellers, but there is no set place for the vegetable market, so it runs on the municipality's road. Stalls occupy most of the space on both sides of the street, causing traffic jams every day and hardship for local people.

Traders complain that although crore of taka in revenue is paid every year, no shed has been built for fresh produce sellers at the Sultanpur Bara Bazar. With no set place, the vegetable market runs on the road.

Vegetable trader Idris Ali told Jagonews that there is no fixed place in the market to sell fresh produce. Traders are forced to do business on the road in front of other people's shops, paying monthly rent and market tolls.

He said about 400 vegetable traders sit on the road at Satkhira Bara Bazar and buy and sell goods worth Tk 2 crore every day. Traders also come to the market's wholesale depots from Jashore, Chuadanga, Jhenaidah and other districts to sell vegetables and fruit.

Vegetable trader Md Bappi told Jagonews: "We have no place to sit in the market. The fish market has a tin shed, and there is a shed for the rice market too. But we trade by the roadside. We have to pay rent to the shop we sit in front of, and toll money to the market leaseholders. So a large part of what we earn working on the road goes to others."

He said sitting on the road also means vegetables often dry out in the sun and rot.

Leaders of the vegetable traders say the market has paid crore of taka in revenue to the municipality over several years, yet nothing has been done to develop it. The matter has been raised repeatedly with public representatives, the mayor and senior authorities without result, so retailers have long had to trade on the road.

Abdur Rahim Babu, general secretary of the Satkhira Kanchabazar Samity, told Jagonews that in the past few years the vegetable traders of the Bara Bazar alone have paid Tk 80 lakh in revenue, including Tk 20 lakh in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

He said the Bara Bazar road is in very poor condition and has not been repaired for a long time. With no government-designated place for the vegetable market, traders are forced to sell by the roadside; these are mainly retailers. The market's wholesale depots all run on their own land or in rented shops, and none of them trade on the road.

Kazi Kabirul Hasan Badsha, president of the Satkhira Kanchabazar Samity, told Jagonews that fresh produce worth several crore taka changes hands at the Sultanpur Bara Bazar every day. The retail traders sit on the road with no government-designated place and no roof over their heads. He said he had raised the matter several times with the MP, the mayor and senior authorities, and that the municipality gives assurances but does not act on them.

Kazi Firoz Hasan, panel mayor of Satkhira municipality, told Jagonews that most of the Sultanpur Bara Bazar land is leased from the district administration and there is no space for the vegetable market. The municipality also has no financial allocation, so it cannot build or expand infrastructure even though it wants to. If the district administration allots land, he said, the municipality will build a tin shed for the vegetable market.

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