CMP arranges for safe transport to Kishoreganj of labourers for Boro harvest

Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) has arranged safe transport facilities for farm labourers who were sent from the port city to Kishoreganj to work on paddy fields to harvest Boro crops in a bid to ease the crisis of labourers amid the nationwide shutdown.

In the first phase, police sent 100 workers this evening to Kishoreganj's Austagram upazila from the port city's Bakalia on five buses, ensuring social distancing measures and security, reports our Chattogram correspondent quoting Mehedi Hasan, deputy commissioner of CMP (South).

Fourteen hundred more workers will be sent to the area on buses in the next three days, said police sources.

"The 1,500 labourers, hailing from Kishoreganj, used to reside at different shanties in Bakalia and would go to their district and work in paddy fields during harvest," DC Mehedi Hasan told The Daily Star.

"Due to the shutdown [to curb the spread of coronavirus], the agricultural workers were afraid to go there, but police arranged safe transport for their journey. Today we've sent 100 workers via five buses maintaining social distance and physical safety," he said.

"We have talked to superintendent of police (SP) of Kishoreganj where the local police administration told us that residential facilities for the workers have already been arranged and the workers will be quarantined there for 14 days during their work," the DC added.

"Police checked the body temperature of the workers and gave them masks before they boarded the buses. The buses were disinfected before boarding," Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) (South) Shah Md Abdur Rauf said.

"S Alam Company of Chattogram has provided us 40 buses, each bus has 40 seats, for the workers. All the 1,500 workers will be sent to the district over two or three days," the ADC added.

Banners were hung on every bus and a written document from Bakalia Police Station was also provided so that the buses can ply the highway without any hassle. Also, CMP communicated the buses' registration number to every police unit via wireless.

Boro accounted for more than half of the total 3.64 crore tonnes of rice produced in the country in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, according to data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).