Live Correspondent: Bangladesh Shop Owners Association on Tuesday urged the government to allocate Tk 700 crore initially for the small traders of Bangabazar market to recoup their losses caused by the massive fire that burnt the market to ashes, reports UNB.

After visiting the Bangabazar market in Dhaka, the president of the association Helal Uddin told reporters that around 5,000 shops, mostly owned by small traders, were damaged in the fire.

As the Eid festival is ahead, all the shops were full of clothes and other products which were almost fully damaged in the fire. Goods worth over Tk 2500 crore were damaged in the fire, Helal said.

He said that the capital of these businessmen is the goods of the shops. As the goods are burnt, now they have no assets left of the businesses, he said.

"Now for them, we are demanding from the government Tk700 crore initially to compensate the losses ahead of Eid," he added.

Dhaka, 04 April (campuslive24.com)//ssd