'Plough festival' for saving land
Workers of three tea estates in Habiganj's Chunarughat upazila yesterday observed a “plough festival” to mobilise support for their demonstration against the government move to set up a special economic zone (SEZ) in Chandpur Tea Estate.
Workers of Chandpur, Begumkhan and Jualbhanga tea estates in the upazila gathered at Chandpur Tea Estate for a rally in the morning. They also observed a two-hour work abstention.
They sang patriotic and inspirational songs at the rally.
“We have been living here for generations. Neither the government nor the tea estate authorities informed us of anything about the economic zone,” said Bhuttu Karmakar, an organiser of the programme.
“Many workers' family members don't have jobs. They live by growing crops on the spare land within the tea estate. Without this land, it would be impossible for them to survive,” he added.
Surjo Kumar Bakti, president of Begumkhan tea garden unit of the Bangladesh Tea Labour Union, said a registered worker gets a meagre Tk 85 daily, which is among the lowest pays in the world.
Mohan Robidas, a Dhaka University student who lives there, said the government's move to set up an economic zone there was just another case of neglect and discrimination against tea workers.
“We are Bangladeshi citizens and we have rights to vote, yet we are among the most deprived people in the country. We have been living here and cultivating the land for over 150 years, but still we don't have a place of our own,” he said.
Mala Munda, 54, head of a five-member family at the tea estate, said, “We have been living on this land for four generations, but we never faced such a threat to our survival before.”
Avirot Bakti, convener of Chandpur Bhumi Rakkhya Committee, alleged, “There is a conspiracy to grab our ancestral land in the name of setting up a special economic zone.”
Political parties and rights activists warned that the government's decision to build the SEZ on hundreds of acres of arable land would threaten the livelihood of thousands of workers and their families. Chandpur Tea Estate has some 16,000 workers, including 1,664 permanent ones.
Workers also formed a human chain there under the banner of Chandpur Bhumi Rakkhya Committee.
Talking to The Daily Star, rights activist Abul Hasan said foreign investment was being invited there to “exploit cheap labour”.
He also claimed that the government authorities were not following international labour laws in implementing the proposed project.
Comments