Blockade takes heavy toll on Ctg transport workers
Noor-e-Alam, a driver of Unique Service, an inter-district bus operator, would earn Tk 1,300 a day and get along with his six-member family. But since the start of the countrywide transport blockade on January 6, that meagre income has been gone.
“I am now totally jobless and passing idle days at my village home in Patiya upazila of Chittagong and struggling to meet my family needs,” he said, overcome with despair. “I can't think what I shall do if the country's present situation lingers on.”
Like Alam, thousands of people involved in the transport sector of Chittagong have been hit hard by the ongoing blockade, enforced by the BNP-led 20-party demanding a fresh national election to be overseen by a non-party administration.
Abul Kashem, a driver of S Alam Paribahan, another bus service, said that without work, he had been staying at his village home in Rangunia upazila for more than a week now. He is the sole bread winner for his five-member family.
The two drivers besought the political leaders to solve the ongoing problem immediately and let them get back to their daily business.
Manjurul Alam Manju, secretary general of Chattagram Jela Sarak Paribahan Malik Group, said 11,500 vehicles including buses, trucks and covered vans operated under this association.
Because of the blockade, 40 percent of those vehicles are kept off the streets, he said, adding that the rest were plying different routes but braving risks.
The blockade has brought miseries to both the owners and workers, but the latter are the worst-sufferers because they are living inhuman lives, Manju said.
The transport sector of Chittagong, which employs 40,000 people, is suffering a loss of Tk 5 crore every day due to the blockade, he told The Daily Star.
Abdul Mannan, publicity secretary of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, said the political problems should be resolved immediately through negotiations for the sake of the people.
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