Our Correspondent :
Rickshaw pullers in Barishal city have staged a agitation procession with vacant rickshaws demanding relief and rations during lockdown situation on Saturday.
Bangladesher Samaj Tantrik Dal (BSD) and its workers front, Samajtantrik Sramik Front, jointly organised the protest procession of more than five hundred rickshaws and workers of the city.
The procession started from Ashwini Kumar Hall of the city at 11:30 am on Saturday.
After moving on Sadar Road, Hospital Road, Nathullabad, Amtala Mor, ended the program holding a protest rally in front of the Barishal City Corporation.
During the procession, the agitated rickshaw workers chanted slogans “Keu Khabe to Keu Khabe Na- Ta Hobe Na, Ta Hobe Na “, “If you don’t give to feed, you have no write impose lockdown,” “You will have to pay 1 month’s food and 5,000 taka for the lockdown,etc.”
Rickshaw worker Abdul Karim said, “We driving rickshaws to earn our livelihoods.So If we cannot pull the rickshaws, then how can we live,and what will we feed?
Old age rickshaw puller Kobir Bhai said, “We are about 6/7 hundred people came on road with rickshaws to observe the programme on Saturday. However police and lawenforcers harassed us when we came out on the road.
Manik Hawlader, general secretary of the Samajtantrik Sramik Front district unit, said during the last lockdown, some food and relief assistances were distributed from city corporation and the deputy commissioner. But this time nothing was arranged.
Dulal Mallik, president of Barishal Rickshaw Van Driver and Workers Union, said there are 5,000-6,000 rickshaw workers in Barishal city. Most of them in financial distress but no one is thinking about their livelihoods.
Another rickshaw driver Abul Kalam, said that many people have gone to the villages as they could not drive rickshaws, and many of them are spending their days in slums of the city with hunger. Protesting workers said no one has come to see our conditions.
BSD Barisal City Committee Member Secretary, Dr. Manisha Chakraborty said, “We are not opposing the lockdown. But we are demanding the relief assistances and rations for the poor, helpless workers and who living hand to mouth. We are demanding their free corona test and financial assistances, so that not a single person will suffer.
