Absence of B’deshi tourists: Worried city traders think of wooing local customers

Kolkata: The ongoing crisis in Bangladesh and subsequent non-arrival of travellers from there has led to a blow to the traders of a particular area in central Kolkata, which is popular among tourists from the neighbouring country for shopping and staying.

A section of those perplexed traders are staring at a void, while others are either looking at new avenues or decided to woo back the Indian customers they have lost in the past. An estimated 15,000 families are now affected by the situation. According to a trader, in the past, local customers and tourists from other states in India used to visit these areas for various purposes. They were more or less ignored by the traders and their population gradually dwindled over the years. “Now there is a big question mark. They don’t know what to do… they don’t know in which direction their business will go since they are dependent only on the Bangladeshis,” the National Committee Member of Travel Agents Federation of India (East India), Anil Punjabi, said. “With 80 to 85 per cent of Bangladeshis visiting Free School Street, Marquis Street, Sudder Street, Lindsay Street, Collin Lane and the adjoining areas for forex, airline tickets, hotels, restaurants and shopping, businessmen in this region became dependent on tourists from the neighbouring country,” Free School Street Traders Association secretary, Hyder Ali Khan, said.

“All of us are in trouble as a result of the crisis,” Khan said, condemning the ongoing atrocities against Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh.

“I am 55 years old and grew up in this area. I have seen local people — Hindus and Muslims – shopping before Durga Puja and Eid in the area in my childhood,” Khan said. Gradually everything changed due to the constant wooing only of Bangladeshi customers and therefore Indian tourists and even locals, started avoiding this area as it is full of Bangladeshi tourists, he narrated. Traders here used to be busy attending to foreigners and this attitude of theirs has now become the reason behind their nemesis.

Khan also said that a meeting will be held on Monday on the issue. The president of the Free School Street Traders Association, Monotosh Kumar Saha, said that he has been running business in the area for the last 25 years. Now, he runs a transport service, a hotel business and a pub. On December 6, a total of only 130 people came here whereas the figure used to vary between 5,000 and 7,000 per day, he said. “I have told my staff that I won’t be able to run the bar and hotel after December 31. If the situation does not improve in Bangladesh, I will have to terminate them,” he said.

“I have 28 rooms in my hotel and only four rooms were rented on Friday. The rooms used to be full before the Bangladesh trouble,” Saha said.

Meanwhile, protesting the alleged atrocities on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh, a demonstration was held in Kolkata on Sunday where Dhakai Jamdani sarees were torched.

The demonstration, organised by the Bengali Hindu Suraksha Samiti, was held at the Salt Lake International Bus Terminus. The protesters called for a boycott of Bangladeshi goods, warning that Indians wouldn’t remain silent if the disrespect toward the tricolour and attacks on Hindus continued. “We condemn the continuous targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh and the hate-driven narratives against India. We will not sit idle and with burning the Jamdani sarees, we urge people to boycott Bangladeshi products,” said a

protestor.With agency inputs