Why create unnecessary sufferings for visitors?

It is disappointing that people have had to face huge trouble while buying entry tickets for the national museum and the historic Ahsan Manzil as they went to visit those places after Eid holidays. According to a report by this daily, visitors could neither buy tickets online nor from the ticket counters on the spot. While on-spot ticket sales remained closed, online tickets could also not be bought due to the complexity of the process and issues with the servers. Visitors, therefore, had to buy tickets at exorbitant prices from the black market. While the regular entry fee to the museum is Tk 20, they had to pay up to Tk 100 for each ticket bought from the black market.

Reportedly, both the national museum and Ahsan Manzil started selling tickets online after they reopened in August following a long closure induced by the pandemic. Visitors have been facing difficulty in buying tickets since. The problem has intensified after Eid as the number of visitors greatly increased. Selling entry tickets for the two places has become a lucrative business for some locals who buy the tickets online and sell them at high prices. The authorities of the two sites are aware of that too. Why, then, are they not taking any action to regulate the ticket selling system? It is also not understandable as to why they haven't yet reopened the on-spot ticket counters. While the visitors are suffering due to mismanagement in the ticket selling system, the authorities are also being deprived of profits from ticket sales. Only the black marketeers are making profits.

Dhaka only has a few historical sites left for its residents to visit, as one by one all such sites and museums are being ruined due to negligence and lack of preservation efforts from the government. We would urge the government to do the needful in preserving and promoting these sites of historical value. Ahsan Manzil and the national museum are two such places that enrich our knowledge about our history.

Therefore, the government must ensure that people do not face any trouble in visiting them. We urge the authorities to make the on-spot ticket counters operational again and also make the online ticket selling service more convenient and accessible. Visitors should have both options available for them. At the same time, the authorities must take action against the black marketeers who are manipulating the system and creating problems for the visitors.