Shopkeepers of capital’s New Market have been demonstrating for the third straight day demanding to open the market as the nation going through countrywide weeklong lockdown to contain the drastic rise of Covid-19 infection.
They staged demonstration from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm on Tuesday in front of the Chandni Chwak shopping complex to press home their demand to open the market for a certain period of the day maintaining health guidelines.
A shopkeeper, Kamal Hossain said "The government should think that if the business cannot run smoothly, the country will not last. We want to open the market for a certain period. We don’t know what actually will happen if the shops remain closed during Ramadan since we are yet to make up losses incurred last year."
A woman entrepreneur, Dilshad Afrin, came from Narayanganj to take part in the demonstration.
Dilshad, also an owner of a garment factory, told Prothom Alo, "There are thousands of women entrepreneurs who are running their business by taking loans from NGOs and banks. Now they are surviving without having food."
She said if the markets remain closed, women will have to struggle to pay the loans.
Monir Hossain, general secretary of Chandni Chwak shopping complex forum, told Prothom Alo that “Our clothes will go from wholesalers to retailers. Then customers will buy. After that they will go to tailors. So, this is the peak time for our business.”