City dwellers throng sweetmeat shops

The city's sweetmeat shops are doing a brisk business on the occasion of Pohela Boishakh (the first day of Bangla New Year), as the people throng those to entertain their near and dear ones with sweets to celebrate the festival.
The traders have got chance to do such a good business after a prolonged political unrest since early January this year.
"We have received a good number of orders from different corporate offices, including banks, mobile phone operators and others. The orders have increased ahead of Pohela Boishakh and we are providing our service in line with the customers' demand," Premium Sweets' senior manager Syed Ashraful Islam told the FE.
 "We are offering different types of items, like - roshogolla, laddu, halua and kalojam etc. Price range of these items is between Tk 500 and Tk 850 per kg. But the decoration of packets for sweets depends on customers' choice, and sometimes we offer it."
"We are taking orders for around 50 to 100 kgs of sweets per day, as we try to maintain the quality of our products," he added.
Sadia, a housewife who came to buy sweets to Meena Bazar, said: "On the occasion of Pohela Boishakh a lot of relatives will come to my house. To entertain them, I'm buying two types of sweets - roshogolla and soan papri. We enjoy some sweets on this special day."
Many traders open 'halkhata', an age-old tradition on Pohela Boishakh, and invite the customers and celebrate the Bangla New Year to give their business a boost.
On the occasion the traders entertain the customers with different types of sweetmeats and present gifts.
Salesman Monir Hossain of Meena Sweets at Sat Masjid Road said: "Sales of our items have increased for the last few days. The customers are buying more sweets than usual ahead of Pohela Boishakh."
Meena Sweets is offering chamcham, roshogolla, chhanar pantua, chhanar jilapi, balushai, baby sweets and other items. The price range is between Tk 900 and Tk 1,150 per kg.
Meanwhile, Ajit Kumar Das, owner of Bikrampur Mishtanno Bhander at Purana Paltan, said generally their sales get doubled on the occasion of Bangla New Year. But this year the scenario is little bit changed due to the political turmoil for more than three months.
"We are facing a tough time due to the political unrest. We generally sell sweetmeat items worth Tk 5,000 per day from some seven days ahead of Pohela Boishakh. But this year the sales proceed is not more than Tk 2,000 per day," he added.  
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