Staff Reporter :
Agitating jute mills workers continued their road and rail blockade programmes alongside indefinite strike in Khulna on Wednesday to press home their five-point demand.
People in the greater Khulna districts were the worst sufferers due to the blockade. It was the third day of their agitation in Khulna. The blockade halted vehicular movement on the highway and train service on the rail route, causing immense sufferings to passengers.
Like previous day the agitating workers laid a siege to the Dhaka-Jessore highway by setting fire to tyres on the road and took position on the railway track at Natun Rasta intersection.
The CBA and non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills-Crescent Jute Mills, Platinum Jute Mills, Khalispur Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Eastern Jute Mills, Jessore Jute Mills and Carpeting Jute Mills-enforced the strike from Monday morning and blockade from Tuesday.
Additional members of different law enforcing agencies have been deployed in and around Khalishpur industrial belt as well as railway track and highway and other strategic points to ensure that the situation does not get out of hand.
People of Khulna and other neighbouring areas are facing serious difficulties due to trains are being cancelled while highway being blocked. As the blockade continues, protestors blocking all road and rail routes to the place people where travelling to and from other districts to Khulna for work, were the worst affected. Transportation of goods on trucks and plying of buses were also affected in some areas.
“We cannot reach our offices. Students cannot go to their educational institutions. There is complete chaos. The government seems to be in a slumber,” Aktaruzzaman Milon, an employee of a private company in Khulna who commutes from Jessore daily, told The New Nation.
The CBA leaders threatened to continue their road blockade programme and they will go for tougher programmes if their demands are not met immediately. The demands of the workers include adequate allocation for the jute industry, payment of their arrears, formation of a wage board and stopping the move to privatise the state-owned jute mills. Earlier on March 16 they had given the government an April 3 deadline to meet their demands.
When contacted Mohammad Sohrab Hossain, convener of the Oikya Parishad told The New Nation said that no concerned officials from the government assured them of implementing their demands.
“When we are passing through a critical juncture, none from the government’s side came to us. Family members of many workers are starving, as we have not been paid eight weeks’ wages yet. It is inhuman. It can’t be tolerated,” he said.
He warned that they would continue their blockade programme if their demands are not met immediately.
“We will announce tougher programme immediately. If we are not able to feed our family members we don’t have any option but to go for more hardcore programmes,” Mohammad Sohrab Hossain said.
He said that earlier they had given an ultimatum to the government on March 16 to meet our demands by April 3 but the government did not pay any heed to their call
Around 35 thousand workers of the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agent) and non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills are taking part in the movement.
