"The DCC has decided to raise the rent to Tk. 5 per square feet which is not acceptable to us. It has done nothing to develop the market and business has gone down due to its poor condition," said Shahjahan Bhuiyan, chairman of Karwan Bazar DIT Market Committee.

The shop owners of the Market are passing their days with anxiety as a portion of the market is falling apart apparently due to the lack of maintenance of the DCC

"There are about 286 shops and two garments industries on this three storied market. But for nine months the DCC is not accepting the rent agreed in 2001, said Bhuiyan.

"The DCC settled the rent of the Karwan Bazar DIT market at Tk. 250 per shop for 150 square feet area. Now it wants Tk. 750 for each shop," added the chairman of the market.

Bhuiyan informed that the market was established in 1964 by the DIT and handed over to the shop owners in 1966. In 1983 it was handed over to the DCC but the Corporation could not get hold of the market because of complicacies over the right of land. DIT used to take land tax from the shop owners at Tk. 1.50 per month but the DCC did not agree with the land right of the shopkeepers. The shop owners then went to court for legal protection.

The court asked the DCC to rent the shops on lease basis. In 2001 the DCC settled on a lease basis system and fixed a monthly rent of Tk. 250 per shop.

Till 2001, the DCC did not have the opportunity to collect rent and could not spend for the maintenance of the market. But since then, the DCC regularly received the rent but reportedly didn't spend any money for development and repairs of the market.