The largest banana market in Jhenidah has been facing manifold problems, as the authorities have not been able to renovate it in the past couple of years despite realizing revenue to the tune of about Tk30 lakh per year from sellers and buyers.

People using the market say the sellers and buyers have been agitating against the poor condition of the marketplace. Banana vendor Kamal Mia, Rahmat Ali Mandal and others said they did business at the market near the central bus terminal on the Jhenidah-Khulna highway five days a week.

Wholesale buyers from Dhaka, Sylhet, Barishal, Comilla, Noakhali, Chapainawabganj and other districts flock to the market to buy bananas, purchasing 30 to 40 truckloads of the fruit on market days, they said.

But the roads and thoroughfares are posing a problem. The traders have to make their way through muddy roads during the monsoon. Besides, they say, accidents occur frequently because of the congestion on the thoroughfares.

They say a few hundred labourers are engaged in the loading and unloading of trucks but face difficulties due improper road management in the market.

Banana farmer Abdul Majid says he has been suffering from scabies and other skin diseases after being exposed to polluted water at the Jhenidah banana market. Since then, he has had to spend large sums of money on treatment and to protect the members of his family, he added.

Jahidul Islam, Jhenidah banana market organizing committee president, who is also a ward councillor of the Jhenidah municipality, said when contacted that they were planning to develop the market within a few months to solve the problems sellers and buyers faced. He said the municipality would also develop facilities for consumers and others to increase the market’s revenue earnings.