The local haats, which are situated in the remotest corners of the country, are losing their sheen as super shops and markets of urban areas are now attracting the customers even from the remote villages. The presence of customers in the village markets as well as the local haats of Sylhet region is decreasing day by day like other parts of the country. Once the local haats witnessed huge crowds of local customers. Nowadays, this trend is changing for the advantage of different super shops like Shwapno, Agora and Fiza in Sylhet region.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, some people of local areas and the traders of local haats said that once the village market was a good place for local buyers and sellers for fresh items including fishes and vegetables. Now the customers prefer to visit super shops as they find everything in a place without hassle.
Many people now go to the upazila sadar in regular basis, where they can meet their weekly household demand in a week. So they do not want to go to the local haats to buy their necessary items.
Besides, many village people go to the town area and abroad for their business purpose. So it is another reason for low presence of the people in the village markets, said Nazmul Islam, a young businessman of Govindasree Bazaar in Sylhet.
However, many village markets are still not developed from infrastructural side. So the shoppers show their indifference to go the markets, said Abdur Rashid Nimcai Miah, a regular customer of Govindasree Bazaar. The authorities concerned show negligence in this regard. In the absence of customers, the sellers hiking high price from the buyers, alleged many local people.
Khairul Alom, a USA immigrant who came to the local Govindasree market on Friday to buy essential commodities, said that after coming to the market he feels empty in everywhere. ‘‘Earlier when I came to this market 10 or 15 years ago with my father or brother, I saw huge crowd and found everything in this local market. Now we don’t find everything here,’’ he said. Like Khairul, many others expatriates expressed same opinion about the village market.
Ruhel Ahmed, manager Beanibazar Branch of City Bank, visit Govindasree Bazaar on Friday. He said told the Bangladesh Post that earlier the village market was the only means for buying and selling for the essentials. Now the local market and other haats are losing their heritage for various reasons.
