Barishal Bureau

Although the Port Road market and ghat in Barisal were leased from the Barishal City Corporation, there have been allegations of extortion from the BIWTA road for half a kilometer around.

Extortion is collected from more than three hundred shopkeepers every day under the nose of the administration. At the end of the year, it amounts to half a crore taka. The entire money is distributed among the politically influential.

It is learnt that during the Awami League government, the sole control of the market was held by Nirab Hossain Tutul, the Industry and Commerce Secretary of the Barishal Metropolitan Awami League. When his uncle Abul Khair Abdullah was elected mayor in the 2023 city elections, replacing Sadiq Abdullah, the dominance went to Khair Abdullah's follower, the Fishermen's League leader Khan Habib.

He took out a lease of the market in his wife's name from June 2024 to June 2025. Despite taking over the market, they are collecting extortion from traders on the road for half a kilometer around it, which is owned by BIWTA. However, Khan Habib fled when the Hasina government fell in the July Revolution.

Ganesh Dutta, owner of Dutta Banijya Bhandar, said that numerous floating shops have been set up on both sides of the road from Port Road Bridge to Launch Ghat intersection. Vehicles cannot ply due to these floating shops on both sides of the road. Various types of accidents are happening all the time.

A small trader, on condition of anonymity, said that we cannot say whether the lessor has taken the lease of the market or the lease of the government road. However, outside the market where it is, we have 300 traders setting up stalls on both sides of the main road. Every day, the lessor's representative comes and collects extortion of Tk 50 from us.

Another said that we have paid extortion every day even during the Awami League period, and we are still paying. Earlier, Awami League's Tutul, Khan Habib, used to collect crores of taka. We have to pay money whenever a truck enters this road. Extortion is also collected from small cars. If we say something, they will not let us do business. Even if we give a bribe, we cannot say anything.

The traders said that even though Awami League leader Khan Habib is in hiding, his followers are still collecting extortion from the floating shopkeepers on the road owned by BIWT using the lease slips of the Barisal City Corporation. Although the floating traders admitted to the extortion, the lessee's representative Mizanur Rahman Rana said, "If any trader sets up a shop in the market area under the lease, we collect a lease fee from them. Earlier, we might have charged 50 taka. Now we charge 20/30 taka. We do not get anything from those who set up fruit and vegetable shops illegally on the road."

He said that we took a lease from the Port Road Bazar City Corporation for 3 million taka. We ask for the illegal shops on the road to be demolished, but the floating shopkeepers do not listen to us.

In response to another question, he said that we have also leased the Port Road Ghat for Tk 2.7 million.

The lease covers the area from the Port Road Bridge to the mouth of the Falpatti.

Although the lease from the Port Road Bridge to the mouth of the Falpatti was claimed, Barishal River Port Officer Abdur Razzak said, BIWTA built the Port Road to transport goods from the river. This road is owned by BIWTA. We have not leased the road to anyone. Recently, we have learned that some people have set up shops on the Port Road. We will soon conduct a drive to evict them.

Barishal City Corporation CEO Rezaul Bari said, Port Road is owned by BIWTA. We have leased the market, excluding that road. The City Corporation has not given permission for anyone to set up shops on the road.

We have conducted raids and evicted these illegal shops many times. It has been seen that the day we conducted raids, the next day they set up shops again and occupied the road. The lessee of the city corporation can collect the collection from his designated area but cannot collect the collection from the land owned by someone else outside the market. If anyone does this, we will take action against them.