Benapole, Jashore Correspondent
The corona pandemic has hit hard hundreds of people involved in cattle trading including the leaseholder of the Bagachra Satnail Hat (cattle market) in Sharsha upazila of Jashore, the largest in the southwest region.
Before the corona situation, 5,000 cattles used to be sold at each Hat, but now it decreased to only 100 to 200. The lessee is now facing a huge financial loss, investing Tk 4.9 crore.
Although the Hat is kept open ensuring social distance, the lessee, Nazmul Hasan is lost in the thought of how to get the invested money back now in the absence of buyers and sellers. In this situation, he has requested the government to reduce the lease price by 60 percent to compensate the loss.
Nazmul Hasan said, "Corona virus has destroyed us. I am running cattle market for ten years now but, naver faced such condition. For a month before two Eids, the highest number of cattles are sold at the market. Before Eid-ul-Fitr the market was closed for Corona and now there are no buyers and sellers".
Wholesalers from different parts of the country came and bought cattles from this market situated on the Jashore-Satkhira road. The market is open two days a week on Saturdays and Tuesdays, but now the market is almost devoid of cattles.
Traders say closure of the Hat has left thousands of people, dependent on the market unemployed. Although the market was reopened recently, it is not flourishing due to lack of buyers and sellers. Mofizur Rahman of Chattogram used to buy at least five trucks of cows in each Hat but on Tuesday he said he bought only one truck as due to corona crisis, the demand and price are less this time but, the transportation cost is higher.
Mashm Billah of Samta village, running a cow fattening farm had hoped to sell at least 10 cows during Eid-ul-Fitr, but failed to sell any. Masum said, "I can't sell the cows as there’s no buyer but, all the money from the business has been spent on providing cattle feed".
Montu Mia, Ansar Ali and Sohrab Hossain of Satmail said, "We buy cattle from one market and sell them at another market. It is hard for us to buy cattle feed now, as we can hardly provide food for our family. But, if we can't feed the cattle, we won't get good price either".
Bagachra UP Chairman Elias Kabir Bakul, President of the Hat Committee said, 3,000 beneficiaries of the area are directly and indirectly involved with the market. But for 3 months they were unemployed, living an inhuman life. If the government does not cooperate, those associated with the market will have to be on the road. An application has been made to the concerned department for consideration in this regard, he added.
Sharsha UNO Pulak Kumar Mandal said, "We have received their application but we can not consider it as the Hat Lease Committe has the authority. The application has been sent to the concerned department and we will implement it if the government considers it".
