Spl allocation demanded for quick rehabilitation

Staff Reporter :
Traders have demanded of Tk 700 crore as special allocation for quick rehabilitation and want to restart the business in pursuit of their livelihood.
They have lost everything due to the devastating fire at Bangabazar Shopping Complex in the city on Tuesday.
The shop owners, who have been crippled by the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the ongoing inflation, had their eyes on Eid-ul-Fitr to recover from the losses.
But now they have lost all of their belongings and valuables and faced huge demages due to the deadly inferno ahead of largest festival of the Muslims.
The traders also fear whether they would be able to start business newly at their burnt shop’s place.
Expressing concern over this, several traders said that it was seen that the real shopkeepers did not get their shops back after fire in various markets previously as someone else had occupied it.
They also concerned over how they can start business newly and want quick rehabilitation for the sake livelihood, the traders said.
Expressing deep concern over the fire incident, Bangladesh Shop Owners Association President Md Helal Uddin said, “The devastating fire have burnt more than Tk 2,000 crore
worth of investment into ashes. The traders have become destitute as they have nothing left.”
“The government should provide special allocation to rehabilitate the traders quickly and also remove fear by giving back the previous place to them,” he said.
“Otherwise, all the ways of their turning around would be crippled as there is little possiblitity of getting bank loans,” he added. The shop owners had invested as low as Tk 1 crore to as high as Tk 5 crore in the stores to profit from the biggest festival shopping.
DM Habib, Office Secretary of Bangabazar Shop Owners Association, claimed that around 3,500 shops have been damaged in the fire.
“I have two shops also, hundreds of crores worth of RMG products are now just ashes. We need special allocation to start business newly,” he added.
Expressing deep concern over the fire incident, Md Sameer Sattar, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), urged the concerned authorities to find out the exact reason behind this tragic incident, so that such undeserving incidents can be avoided in the future.
“To avoid such a shocking incident, markets, shopping malls, shops and even households should have initial fire-fighting arrangements and be subject to regular monitoring,” he said. He also stressed on proper awareness which is the main thing when it comes to dealing with or avoiding fire mishaps.