Staff Reporter :
A group of workers of state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), including drivers and staff of other depots besieged its headquarters in the city on Monday demanding arrears.
The aggrieved workers also confined BRTC’s Chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan for about four hours during the demonstration.
Around 100 drivers and staff from 22 depots of the organization were demonstrating in front of the head office in city’s Motijheel-Dilkusha area.
They also demanded that all drivers, who were previously fired for demonstrating to realise their arrears, should also be reinstated in their jobs.
Some 30 to 40 protesters locked the building’s main entrance at around 9:00am.
The protesting workers said that salaries and arrears of staff of the respective 22 deports remained unpaid for four months to 16 months. They blamed the current BRTC chairman for the irregularities.
BRTC chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan said that they are trying to resolve the problem by increasing revenue through new services.
High officials of the organization said they have been struggling to pay the employees as the new pay scale was implemented from 2016.
“With the new scale implementation, salary of the staff doubled from Tk 3.5crore to Tk 7.5crore. At the same time the cost of vehicle maintenance also went up, but the fare of the buses has not been increasedl,” BRTC Secretary Nur-E-Alam told the reporters.
He expected that the problem will be solved as the revenue will go up when 1,100 transports — 600 buses and 500 trucks — under the second Indian Line of Credit will be added to the fleet.
“New vehicles will be added to our fleet soon as the government has imported new vehicles for BRTC. Some of these vehicles have already been added to the fleet, and some are now under process,” he said.
Alam said, “We have already received 300 buses, and when the rest will come, the revenue will rise and we may pay the staff with the pending dues,” he added.
Regarding the demand for reinstating the jobs of terminated drivers, the secretary said it will be done within a day or two.
The arrears continued to pile up as BTRC suffered heavy losses year after year, said insiders.
A group of workers of state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), including drivers and staff of other depots besieged its headquarters in the city on Monday demanding arrears.
The aggrieved workers also confined BRTC’s Chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan for about four hours during the demonstration.
Around 100 drivers and staff from 22 depots of the organization were demonstrating in front of the head office in city’s Motijheel-Dilkusha area.
They also demanded that all drivers, who were previously fired for demonstrating to realise their arrears, should also be reinstated in their jobs.
Some 30 to 40 protesters locked the building’s main entrance at around 9:00am.
The protesting workers said that salaries and arrears of staff of the respective 22 deports remained unpaid for four months to 16 months. They blamed the current BRTC chairman for the irregularities.
BRTC chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan said that they are trying to resolve the problem by increasing revenue through new services.
High officials of the organization said they have been struggling to pay the employees as the new pay scale was implemented from 2016.
“With the new scale implementation, salary of the staff doubled from Tk 3.5crore to Tk 7.5crore. At the same time the cost of vehicle maintenance also went up, but the fare of the buses has not been increasedl,” BRTC Secretary Nur-E-Alam told the reporters.
He expected that the problem will be solved as the revenue will go up when 1,100 transports — 600 buses and 500 trucks — under the second Indian Line of Credit will be added to the fleet.
“New vehicles will be added to our fleet soon as the government has imported new vehicles for BRTC. Some of these vehicles have already been added to the fleet, and some are now under process,” he said.
Alam said, “We have already received 300 buses, and when the rest will come, the revenue will rise and we may pay the staff with the pending dues,” he added.
Regarding the demand for reinstating the jobs of terminated drivers, the secretary said it will be done within a day or two.
The arrears continued to pile up as BTRC suffered heavy losses year after year, said insiders.
