Hartal hardly effective, only unease here and there

Over the past two months, the feature of hartal in Dhaka has not been the same as before and traffic jam has already become a normal phenomenon in the capital city nowadays.

Hartal is also not being properly observed outside of Dhaka but the programme is still being declared as means of protest or demonstration to realise the political demand.

However, the hartal spreads a sense of unease all around while the tensions are higher on the campuses.

Since 6 January, the BNP-led 20-party alliance has called for a continuous blockade, interspersed with hartals since 15 January.

Other than Friday and Saturday, almost every day a hartal is being called, sometimes in demand of the government’s resignation, sometimes for credible elections and sometimes in protest against arrest and torture of the opposition leaders and activists.

The hartal called from Sunday morning for 72 hours, ending Wednesday at six, will be the 15th spell of hartal (shutdown) being called in the meantime.

All offices—government, autonomous and private—remain open. Attendance at the offices is normal. The courts are functioning. Officials and employees of the Secretariat are attending office as usual, with activities being carried out as normal, including meetings with various foreign representatives.

Visitors to the secretariat are less in number. Officials of the public administration ministry take this as favourable for work to proceed in the secretariat. The fewer the visitors, the more work can be done, they claim.

Traffic is normal on the streets. The traffic jams are back in full force. In fact some people wish the hartal was effective to some extent, then the traffic congestion wouldn’t be so bad.

Railway and waterways communication between Dhaka and the other districts has been more or less normal. Road communication is also almost back to normal. There are still apprehensions about travelling at night. The bus and truck owners, as well as the passengers, are still not fully confidence about travelling by night. The long-distance night buses are still few. Passengers on these trips are limited. No one travels at night unless absolutely necessary.  But gradually that is improving too.

The businessmen and shopkeepers would keep one shutter open and the other closed of their shops, but now they are open fully. Wholesale and retail business is bustling. Certain businessmen of Maulvibazar in Dhaka said that many customers were coming both from within Dhaka and also from outside of the city. The number of customers is increasing gradually. Business is getting back to normal.

In the capital city, the retails markets never flagged in their business. The supply of rice, lentils, oil, salt, vegetables, fish, meat and other essentials has been steady. There had only been a fall in the sales of clothes, shoes, toiletries and cosmetics, but that is back to normal too.

A businessman of Uttara’s Rajlaxmi shopping centre said, “We now know what announcement is going to be made, how long the announcer is going to relax and what we should do. We just listen to the announcement and go about our business. We have to work, but a little cautiously. After all, people’s lives have become cheap.”

School studies in the capital city are being affected. For the past two months, classes and exams have been held on the weekends. The guardians are relying more and more on private tutors an coaching classes.

Colleges and universities are open in the capital city, though attendance in some of these institutions is less. Though the number of students coming to college and university is increasing, the trepidation remains highest on the campuses.