C T Online Desk: Tea gardens workers put barricades both on road and railway in Moulvibazar on the eleventh consecutive day of their indefinite strike on Tuesday to press home their demand for increasing their daily wage to Tk 300 from Tk 120.
Local residents said that several hundred workers of Kaloti, Rangichhara and Rajnagar tea gardens at Kulaura upazila in the district blocked the Kulaura-Moulvibazar road at Chowmohani beside the Nabin Chandra Government Model School at noon to realise their demand.
As the news spread, local administration officials including Moulvibazar deputy commissioner Meer Nahid Ahsan and police superintendent Mohammed Zakaria rushed to the spot and persuaded the agitating workers to withdraw their blockade at about 2:30pm and resumed traffic movement on the road.
The workers, however, under the banner of Kaloti Cha Bagan Karmi put a barricade on Sylhet-Akhaura rail route at about 3:30pm in the same area and forced a train heading towards Sylhet to be stranded there.
Receiving the news, officials of the district administration reached the spot again and managed the agitating tea garden workers to withdraw the barricade from the rail route at about 5:00pm and allowed the stranded train to resume journey for its destination, local people said.
Moulvibazar police superintendent Mohammed Zakaria confirmed New Age of the incident of barricading the railway and said that they persuaded the tea garden workers to withdraw the blockade after assuring them of conveying their demand to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier at noon, the Moulvibazar district administration officials, including the deputy commissioner, police superintendent and the Department of Labour’s divisional deputy director Nahidul Islam, visited different tea gardens including Bharaura and Kalihati at Shrimangal upazila while the tea garden workers were staging demonstrations extending their support to the strike.
The Moulvibazar administration officials at that moment convinced the workers to resume work after assuring them of providing assistance to meet their demand of increasing their daily wages.
‘But most workers stopped working after the officials left the scene and then started again to stage demonstration,’ a worker Kripen Hazra said.
Besides, the tea garden workers at Sylhet Valley and Laskarpur Valley in Habiganj continued their indefinite strike demanding an increase in their daily payment by 180 instead of proposed Tk 25 despite the assurance given by local administration to convey their demand to the prime minister.
They alleged that they had no trust in the administration officials, garden owners and even in their leaders.
The tea workers said that they only believed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and if she ordered them directly, they would be ready to go back to work anytime.
The agitating workers told New Age that those, who joined work on Monday afternoon after being convinced by local administration officials, joined the strike again from Tuesday morning.
The workers on Monday resumed work at the current daily salary of Tk 120 in honour of the prime minister hoping that she would review their wage soon after a meeting held at the Moulvibazar deputy commissioner conference room from 9:00pm on Sunday to 3:00am on Monday.
A large section of the workers, however, continued the indefinite strike on Monday in demand of increasing their daily payment up to Tk 300 from Tk 120.
But the workers of all 23 gardens in Sylhet Valley abstained from work and started staging rallies in their respective tea gardens to drum up support to the strike for meeting the demand.
Kamaichhara Tea Garden Panchayet president Bimal Bhar told New Age that all the president and secretaries of 23 gardens of the valley had a meeting at the Sylhet Golf Club in Lakkatira area at noon to take an unopposed decision over the movement.
‘The meeting decided to continue the strike until fulfilment of their demand or until receiving an instruction directly from the prime minister,’ he added.
Bangladesh Chha Shramik Union’s Laskarpur Valley president Rabindra Gowra also confirmed New Age that the presidents and secretaries of 24 tea gardens of the valley sat in a meeting in the afternoon and decided to continue with the movement until the garden owners agreed to increase their daily wages by Tk 180.
The BCSU leaders had begun to observe a two-hour work abstention on August 9 to realise the demand of increasing their daily wage to Tk 300.
Later on August 12, they decided to enforce a strike from the following day (August 13) and vowed to continue it until fulfilment of their demand. A meeting with the local administration, however, ended without any decision over the issue.
Besides, a tripartite meeting held between the administration officials, leaders of Bangladesh Tea Association and BCSU in the office of the Department of Labour in Dhaka also ended without any conclusion.
Later, the workers were offered Tk 145 as their daily wage but they refused it and vowed to continue strike until meeting their demand.
According to the official statistics, around 1.50 lakh people, including 1.03 lakh regular workers, work for 167 commercial tea gardens in Sylhet and Chattogram division.
