Printing shops in the Sylhet city are up to their ears in work, bringing out posters, leaflets and others polls related materials as the city corporation elections are drawing closer.
Market sources said the owners and employees of the publishing houses in the city are now working round the clock for meeting the demand of their clients since Monday noon after the election symbols of candidates were allotted.
Sources in the Muktijoddha Lane and Raja Mansion at Zindabazar and City Market and Qudrat Ullah Market at Bandarbazar, known as the printing hubs in the city, said employees of most of the printing shops were being compelled to work whole night to deliver to the clients election-related materials.
A total of 174 aspirants, including 3 mayoral, 136 general ward councillor and 35 female councillor for reserved wards, are vying against the one mayoral post, 27 general ward councilor posts and 9 ward councilor posts reserved for female in the SCC elections scheduled to be held on June 15, sources in the returning office said.
Suman Ahmed, an employee of Janata Printing Press at the City Market, told New Age that he along with his six colleagues was working relentlessly to deliver their orders in time.
‘The workers now can hardly manage to take rest. They just doze for a few hours in a corner of the shop,’ Suman claimed.
Talking to New Age, Muktijoddha Goli’s Sonar Bangla Press owner Golam Kibria said each and every printing and publishing shop in the city got orders, more or less, to print banners, posters and leaflets to be used in electioneering and mini posters or badges for the activists who participate in the campaigns.
‘The printing houses, which are reputed for goodwill and quality of their products, are experiencing heavy rush of clients,’ he added.
The incumbent councillor of SCC ward 5, Rejwan Ahmed, also a candidate for the same post in the upcoming election, said he had to get delivery of 5,000 posters from a printing shop in three phases.
‘The shop owner could not deliver the posters at a time as he had to manage his other clients at the same time,’ he said.
Rajib Ahmed, owner of Sulabh Printers at City Market, said they were facing an extreme pressure of works and it would continue till the first week of this month (June). ‘After then, the busyness will gradually come down,’ he observed.
Raja Mansion’s Shabdamala Press owner Aziz Ahmed, however, claimed that the pressure on the printing shops would mount further to produce badges containing the election symbols of respective candidates in the next two to three more days before the voting day.
-With New Age input
