Farm labourers want fair wage, equal rights

Farm labourers in the district yesterday formed a human chain along DB Road in Gaibandha municipality, demanding work round the year, fair wages and equal rights compared to other labourers.

Organised by Bangladesh Khet Majur Samity, Gaibandha unit, about two hundred farm labourers, holding placards and banners, from different areas of the district participated in the human chain programme and chanted slogans in favour of their demands.

Prior to the rally, they brought out a procession that paraded the main roads of the town.

The speakers at the rally said as the farm labourers do not get work round the year they remain idle or jobless most of the time of the year.

Acute poverty often gripped them as they do not even get fair wages, they said.

They also demanded transparency in different government schemes like food for work or money for work and preparation of lists of beneficiaries under elderly allowance and widow allowance so that the poor and destitute people can get timely help.

As the labourers play a vital role in the country's development they should be brought under village rationing system, speakers said, adding that farm labourers remain jobless for at least six months including the rainy season.

Bangladesh Khet Majur Samity's Gaibandha unit President Ekram Hossain Badal and its General Secretary Sadequl Islam, spoke among others.