Shaheen Mollah

Pay more to get less is what the miniket rice is all about.

Prices of eggs, rice, vegetables and flour have risen in the capital’s kitchen markets again, increasing the burden on those with limited incomes.  

A mother of three, Nasima Begum (30) is a regular customer of “Fakinni Bazar”, under Bijoy Sarani-Tejgaon Flyover, along the rail tracks.

Four years ago, some plainclothesmen picked up Mohon Mia from his Mirpur house. He has never returned home again. His father Jamsher Ali, a trader, has long insisted he has proof that Rab-4 members took his elder son away without giving any reason.

Four days after the tragedy that killed five of a family in Uttara, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) authority finally started setting up safety barriers along around 10 kilometres of the project area, from Uttara to Gazipur.

For Ria, the newlywed who narrowly escaped death during Monday’s accident in Dhaka’s Uttara, trauma and tragedy knew no bounds.

Faruk, a poultry dealer in Karwan Bazar who hails from Laxmipur, got married to his childhood sweetheart from the same village he used to live in. While they were staying in Dhaka, his wife got pregnant with their first child. But then, the couple had an altercation, and his wife went back to the village to stay with her parents.

People struggling to keep up with rising prices of essentials have to spend even more on food since the government hiked fuel prices a week ago. 

The recent hike in diesel price increased truck fares by 22-25 percent, leading to rice, vegetables and some essentials to become dearer in the capital.

The burden of the arbitrary, overnight leap in fuel prices will be borne by the people, and the low-income group and the middle class will feel it in their bones.

A simple motorbike accident by a teenage boy in the capital’s Mirpur has been turned into an extortion case against eight school and college students for reasons the victim, his family and witnesses cannot explain.

People going to their hometowns from Dhaka to spend Eid suffered immensely due to shortage of buses, long tailbacks on the highways and delayed trains.

After seeing a scarcity of customers, Dhaka’s cattle markets have started gaining momentum after Juma prayers yesterday, as a huge number of buyers rushed to the markets.

The Cabinet Committee on Law and Order at the home ministry recently suggested that the legal age determining who is a “child” be lowered.

People heading for northern districts to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha in their village yesterday faced suffering for want of vehicles, overcharging and traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway.

Dhaka’s cattle markets have not yet seen the expected momentum, just two days before Eid.

Although a good number of sacrificial animals have arrived at Dhaka’s cattle markets, customers were sparse yesterday, the first day of official operation of 20 markets.

“Children miss their father every day,” said the wife of officer-in-charge of Banani Police Station Salauddin, who was killed during the Holey Artisan attack this day in the capital six years ago.

Just a week before Eid-ul-Fitr, a businessman, who has shops at the capital’s AGB colony kitchen market, received a call from an internet-generated number.

At least 100 people were burnt, and of them, 67 were being treated after the BM container depot fire in Chattogram. Due to the limited capacity in Chattogram, patients with serious injuries needed to be shifted to Dhaka through emergency helicopters.