UNB :
The indefinite bus strike that District Road Transport Workers’ Union enforced Sunday morning demanding an end to extortion from the bus drivers on Sylhet bypass road has been withdrawn.
Nurul Haque, general secretary of the union said the strike was withdrawn in the afternoon.
Deputy Commissioner of the district Md Jahangir Hossain and Additional Superintendent of police (Sadar) Jaynal Abedin held a meeting with the union leaders at noon where they assured the workers that they will take step to stop extortion on Sylhet bypass road.
The workers’ leaders then decided to withdraw the strike on condition of resolving the issue within three days.
Nurul Haque said they will resume strike if the issue is not resolved in three days.
DC Jahangir Hossain said hopefully the problem will be resolved once police are deployed in the area.
Earlier, the Sunamganj District Road Transport Workers Union has called an indefinite strike over allegations that buses are being extorted for bribes on the Sunamganj-Sylhet Bypass Road.
The strike began on Sunday, said union General Secretary Nurul Haque.
Members of the Sylhet Workers Union have been extorting inter-district buses headed from Sunamganj to Dhaka along the road since Sept 1, he told bdnews24.com.
They beat the bus workers and forcefully take Tk 50 from each vehicle, he said. “We have informed the Sunamganj superintendent of police and Sylhet police regarding the issue and have called upon them to stop this extortion. But, as we have yet to get justice, we have called an indefinite strike.”
Asked about the issue, Sylhet District Transport Workers Union President Moinul Islam said: “We don’t know who is going around extorting money from Sunamganj’s inter-district buses. The Sunamganj Transport Workers Union did not properly inform us of the situation.”
Sunamganj Superin-tendent of Police Md Mizanur Rahman said that his local transport workers union had informed him of the situation, but he could not take action as the incidents had occurred outside his jurisdiction. He said he urged Sunamganj transport workers to contact Sylhet police regarding the matter.
