The government directive to refrain from excessive decorative lighting at shopping malls on the occasion of Eid has largely been ignored as competing shopping malls do not want to fall behind others in drawing the attention of customers.
Leaders of the shop owners’ association, Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity, on Tuesday told New Age that the association would not take the side of the non-compliant mall operators if the government took punitive action against them.
Amid rising global fuel prices due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, the power energy and mineral resources ministry on March 8 issued a directive to shopping malls and markets across the country asking them to refrain from excessive illumination.
Ministry officials on Tuesday said that eight mobile courts had been deployed across Dhaka since Monday evening to enforce the directive.
Despite the move, many large shopping malls and outlets, particularly in the capital, were found illuminated on Tuesday.
The façade of footwear outlet Leatherex beside the Tejkuni Para foot overbridge near Farmgate was found illuminated even at 2:27pm.
Two attendants at the shop declined to explain the reason and refused to say their names.
The manager of another footwear brand Bay outlet at Farmgate, requesting anonymity, said that although he was aware of the directive the outlet continued illumination to keep it attractive in the evening as neighbouring shops were also doing the same.
At the garments outlet MBRELLA on Ring Road at Adabor, manager Mohammad Khorshed said that he had not been informed of the directive.
The outlet had been decorated with lighting since the beginning of Ramadan.
‘If the neighbouring shops stop lighting, we will also do the same in the interest of the country,’ Khorshed said.
Attendants at Galleria by Apex, a multi-storey outlet of the footwear brand Apex, at the Shia Mosque intersection in Mohammadpur also said that decorative lighting was part of the Eid shopping atmosphere.
‘If there is a directive for all shops to refrain from excessive lighting, we must follow it,’ said Mohammad Riaz, assistant manager at the outlet.
Reports also said that Fortune Shopping Complex and Center Point Shopping Mall at Mouchak as well as markets in the New Market area, including Gausia Market and Makkah Shopping Mall, remained illuminated.
Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity secretary general Md Zahirul Haque Bhuiyan told New Age that the association had issued notices and letters to shopping centres across the country asking them to stop decorative and unnecessary indoor lighting.
‘The association will not take the side of non-compliant shops. Instead, we will support the government if legal action is taken against the violators,’ he said.
Muhammad Arif Sadeq, public relations officer of the power energy and mineral resources ministry, said on Tuesday that eight mobile courts had been deployed across Dhaka city since Monday evening.
No non-compliant shopping centres were fined during the initial drive.
‘The first-day drive was mainly for raising awareness. Legal action will be taken in the next raids for sure,’ he said, adding that the drive would continue until the directives remain effective.
