Markets in Dhaka South to stay shut for March 7 rally

Shopowners of 73 markets in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) area will keep their shops closed to allow their staff join the Awami League's March 7 rally at the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan.

Leaders of the markets took the decision after a number of meetings with DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon in the last couple of days, sources said.

Meanwhile, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, yesterday at a meeting asked DSCC councillors and the party's Dhaka city leaders to bring more people as the party has a target of gathering around 10 lakh people at the rally, said AL sources. 

Commuters in Dhaka city are likely to face a scarcity of public transport tomorrow as several thousand transport workers will join the rally to be organised by AL marking the historic March 7 speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

People often face difficulties due to rallies in the capital as roads leading to the venues get choked with traffic. On the other hand, in many cases, there is also a lack of public transport as transport owners and workers associations, having political affiliation, force their workers to join rallies.

This year, March 7 will be observed with much more fanfare as the speech has been included in the Memory of the World International Register, a list of the world's important documentary heritage maintained by Unesco. AL already held a series of meetings in last several days with different front and like-minded organisations to ensure a record gathering. At yesterday's meeting with Quader at Nagar Bhaban, a shop owner at a DSCC market said they will keep all markets under DSCC closed for its staff and businessmen to join the rally.

At yesterday's preparatory meeting with Mayor Khokon in the chair, GM Atikur Rahman of Gulistan Trade Centre said they will join the rally to ensure participation of a huge number of people from all markets. “We will attend the programme closing all our markets,” he said. Sources said around 6,000 to 7,000 people work in the 73 markets in the DSCC area.

Quader, however, said there is no need to shut down the city markets as the rally will start from 3:00pm. He also urged party leaders to remain careful so that city commuters do not suffer due to the rally.

Meanwhile, garbage management workers will also join the rally. President of Scavenger Union of DSCC Abdul Latif at the meeting said a huge number of workers will join the programme. Emerging from the meeting, Councillor of Ward-25 of DSCC Md Delwar Hossain told The Daily Star that they were asked to bring as many people as possible. “I will try to bring around 5,000 people from my ward to the rally.”