Transport strike postponed

The bus and coach owners’ association of southern Bangladesh has decided to postpone their indefinite transport strike until Aug 28.

Munshiganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 August 2014, 06:09 PM
Updated : 23 August 2014, 06:09 PM
The strike was supposed to begin from Sunday.
The call for postponement on Saturday followed an assurance from the deputy commissioner (DC) of Munshiganj district that the matter could be resolved through dialogue.
DC Md Saiful Hasan Badal told bdnews24.com that transport leaders had decided to defer the strike after he sent a letter to them urging them to call off the strike.
He said the meeting with the transport leaders will take place at Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Union office in Dhaka on Aug 28.
However, transport workers union Publicity Secretary Sheikh Ripon told bdnews24.com that the strike will happen if no results emerge from that meeting.
Two people were killed on Aug 4 after their motorcycle collided with a Meghna Paribahan bus in Bejgaon area on the Dhaka-Mawa highway in Munshiganj's Shreenagar.
Following the accident, agitated locals burnt two Meghna Paribahan buses and damaged around 50 other buses.
Since then no Meghna Paribahan buses are running on 42 routes of the region, leaving around 200 workers jobless.
The bus and coach owners’ association of southern Bangladesh on Friday announced the indefinite transport strike protesting against the vandalism and the torching of their vehicles.
Association President Md Alamgir Molla had said that buses and minibuses will not run on the Dhaka-Khulna-Barisal, Dhaka-Mawa, Dhaka-Munshiganj and Dhaka-Dohar routes from Sunday.