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Onion Market: Now wholesalers on a slippery slope
Amid the steady fall in its price, wholesalers as well as retailers now refrain from buying onion fearing a further price fall as the locally-grown variety along with the imported ones started hitting the market.
NCC cleaners ‘immune’ to health hazards
They clean wastes and garbage to keep the city clean and hygienic without using any protective gears, exposing themselves to various contagious diseases.
Some of the cleaners claim they are “immune to any health hazards associated with the job” but experts say they are at risk of contracting diseases such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and even AIDS.
There are 912 cleaners working under the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC). Besides, more than 100 cleaners are employed through 12 NGOs to collect wastes from houses.
Besides, several hundred day-labourers clean the sewerage system of the city during Eid and work on daily-wage basis at different times.
These workers under the NCC collect garbage from different places and dump them at designated spots. But no-one of them use any protective gear provided by NCC.
“They collect wastes and garbage without wearing gloves, boots, or masks. The garbage includes rotten vegetables, dead animals, and even entrails of chicken, cattle and goats,” a municipality official said.
The scenario in two hospitals is also serious. The hospital staff openly clean medical wastes, which is dangerous to human health, without using masks and dump them at designated sites.
Medical wastes include syringes, needles, blood, cotton with pus, tumours, bandage-gauze, hand gloves, medicines and medicine bottles, saline and other chemicals.
“Garbage is always risky. It’s extremely risky if the garbage is removed without any protective measure,” said NCC Medical Officer Sheikh Mustafa Ali.
“But the cleaners aren’t aware that they’re at severe risk and they’re not taking it seriously,” he added.
The cleaners refused to talk to the UNB correspondent.
One of them, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We’ve been doing this work for years. We always work barefoot, collect wastes with our bare-hands and without masks. Nothing happens to us. We don’t need protective gears.”
Alamgir Hossain Hiron, Conservancy Officer of NCC, said they provide the cleaners with gloves, masks, shoes and even raincoats. “They sell those instead of using them,” he said.
“We repeatedly tell them (about health hazards at work) but our words are ignored. The situation has improved. Nowadays many staff are aware of the dangers and use protective gears,” Hiron said.
A concrete bridge could reduce hassles of thousands
A risky bamboo bridge at Mohishamuri Dharapar village in Kaliganj upazila has become the only means for over one one lakh people of 15-20 villages since a concrete one over the Shoti River caved in five years ago.
Onion price starts falling; wholesalers receive backlash
As onion price started falling with the government’s move to import it and arrival of the locally-produced one in the market, the wholesalers in the capital were seen passing idle time on Sunday due to poor turnout of retailers fearing losses.
Move underway to import extra 30,000 mt octane
The government will import an additional 30,000 metric tonnes of octane to meet the growing demand of fuel, mainly consumed by vehicles such as cars, jeeps and motorcycles for November and December this year.
Local variety hits Faridpur onion markets, price falling
Amid its serious short supply across the country, the farmers here have started selling the newly-harvested local variety of onion, ‘Murikata’, at Tk 112 per kg.
Onion import from Myanmar on the rise
In the wake of the overheated onion market triggered by an Indian export ban, the import of onion from Myanmar has risen significantly with 11,732 tonnes entering the country through Teknaf in November till Saturday.
On average, 733.25 tonnes of onion were imported every day through the port in the current month, said Absar Uddin, customs revenue officer at the port.
He said a total of 20,843 tonnes of onion entered the country in October with 672.35 tonnes on average every day.
Md Jasim Uddin Chowdhury, manager of the port, said the onion import from Myanmar saw a rise in November compared to the previous month. “If the current trend continues, more onion will arrive in the country in the current month than October's,” he said.
He said importers are bringing in Burmese variety of the cooking ingredient every day.
Dhaka needs to utilise growing global pressure on Myanmar: Experts
Like Myanmar, its friends will also feel the “pressure” amid significant development on “legal front” that Bangladesh needs to utilise prudently to keep up the growing global pressure on Myanmar until a solution to Rohingya crisis is found, say foreign affairs analysts.
Onion still selling at ‘Tk 260’ in retail markets
Onion price in the city's wholesale markets remained almost unchanged on Saturday compared to Friday’s amid fall in sale after the government’s announcement to import it from different countries on an emergency basis but it continued to soar in retail markets.
Saudi dream turns into nightmare for Bangladeshi worker Sumi
“They pounced on me almost every single night. I fainted at times but they didn’t stop. They’d beat me up if I protested” – this is how Bangladeshi worker Sumi Akter, who returned from Saudi Arabia after five and a half months, described her ordeal.
“I went there for work but why was I subjected to such inhuman physical and sexual torture?” she asked.
Sumi, daughter of day-labourer Md Rafiqul Islam of Panchagarh’s Boda Upazila, went to the kingdom as a domestic help on May 30.
She said her husband, Nurul Islam, instigated her to go to Saudi Arabia as a domestic help.