On the upcoming Eid-ul-Adha, sacrificial animals will be sold at 8 smart haats are in Dhaka North City. These haats will located in Uttara, Diabari, Bhatara, Saeed Nagar, Kaola Sealdanga, Badda’s Aftab Nagar, Mohammadpur Basila, Gabtali, Mirpur Section 6 and Dhaka Polytechnic Institute grounds.
Bank cards, MFS and QR technology will be accepted while transacting at these haats. For this reason, there will be booths of 10 banks, 3 international payment schemes including Amex, Mastercard and Visa and 4 MFS providers including bKash, Nagad, Upay and M-cash at DNCC’s animal markets.
Banks include AB Bank Limited, Bank Asia Limited, BRAC Bank Limited, Eastern Bank Limited, IFIC Bank PLC, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, Mutual Trust Bank Limited, Pubali Bank Limited, The City Bank Limited and United Commercial Bank PLC.
For this reason, bank accounts of 10,000 farmers have already been opened, said Md. Atiqul Islam, the City Mayor of Dhaka North City Corporation.
Mayor Atiqul Islam said about DNCC’s smart haats, under the slogan ‘Smart Bangladesh, Smart Haats’, DNCC’s 8 temporary sacrificial animal haats will have a digital transaction system, and these haats will be smart haats. We are slowly moving towards Smart Bangladesh. As part of this, all transactions will be done smartly. Likewise, we can do cashless transactions at the sacrificial animal market. Bank accounts of 10,000 farmers have already been opened for this transaction. In that case, we don’t have to go to market with money, cow owners also won’t face problems while returning home with money. Because the transaction will be done digitally.’
He said, ‘In 2022, Bangladesh Bank took up the pilot program of this initiative with the aim of introducing digital transactions in sacrificial animal markets and financial inclusion of marginal animal sellers through personal retail accounts, where Tk. 33 crore was transacted. This time our transaction target is 150 crore taka.
It may be noted that, with the overall support of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association as a joint initiative of DNCC and Bangladesh Bank, to bring the animal sellers under the financial services at the grass root level and to create opportunities for digital transactions at all levels for the common buyers, this program of digital transactions (especially Bangla QR) has been taken up in Qurbani (sacrificial) animal markets.
He also announced the removal of waste within 8 hours of Qurbani at a press conference on digital transaction system at DNCC’s Qurbani Animal Haat under the title ‘Smart Bangladesh Smart Haat’ at Banani Hotel Sheraton on Monday (June 19).
DNCC Mayor Md. Atiqul Islam said, ‘When I took charge as mayor, the waste of Qurbani was removed within 48 hours. From the following year, I used to finish the waste disposal of Qurbani within 24 hours. I removed the waste in 12 hours during the last Eid al-Adha. Now I would like to announce that with everyone’s efforts this Eid we North City Corporation will remove the sacrificial waste within 8 hours. He announced that he himself will be in the field along with the officials and employees engaged in removing the sacrificial waste.
DNCC Mayor said, ‘Furthermore, the leave of all officials and employees of Dhaka North City Corporation involved in the removal of waste from the sacrifice has been cancelled. Besides, we have formed a monitoring team and committee for the proper management of waste disposal. We will have 11,000 workers in the field for waste removal.
He said, ‘We will distribute 9 lakh biodegradable (environmentally friendly) polybags to those citizens who will sacrifice animals. You put sacrificial waste in this polybag and we will remove it. However, please do not put meat in these polybags and keep them in the fridge. We made them to remove waste.”
He said, ‘DNCC has already organized temporary 8 sacrificial animal haats, besides one more haat will be finalized in two days. That is, apart from these nine temporary haats of DNCC and Gabtali permanent hut, there will be no other haats in the DNCC area.
Organizations participating in the program will set up digital booths in 8 markets of Dhaka North City and will deliver the money instantly from the buyer’s account to the seller’s account and will work to reduce the use of cash in transactions. This will reduce the risk of cash transactions as well as create a digital footprint or record of transactions. The record created will help the animal dealers to avail various services and assistance including getting loans on easy terms in future.
Under the direction of MasterCard Country Manager Syed Mohammad Kamal, DNCC Chief Executive Officer Md. Salim Reza, Ministry of Fisheries and Animal Resources Additional Secretary Nripendra Chandra Debnath, Bangladesh Bank Additional Director Shah Ziaul Haque, Association of Bankers Bangladesh Chairman Salim RF Hussain, Bangladesh Dairy Farmers, Chairman of the association Md. Imran Hossain and others also attended the event.