Workers and employees of state-owned Khulna Hardboard Mills yesterday confined managing director Kazi Ruhul Amin and other officials to their respective office rooms for hours at Khalishpur while agitating to press home their three-point demand.
The demands are -- allocation of fund as running capital to resume production, payment of wages and salaries of last June and July and payment of Eid bonus.
I have asked BCIC chairman for Tk 2 crore to use it as running capital to resume production and Tk 50 lakh for payment of arrears and Eid bonus. But so far there has been no response from the authorities concerned, the MD told this correspondent.
On the other hand, president of Hardboard Mill Workers Union Md. Abdul Hannan said that the siege programme would not be withdrawn till the management starts payment of arrears and Eid bonus.
He threatened to paralyse entire Khalishpur industrial belt if their three-point demand is not met before Eid-ul-Fitr.
Meanwhile, production at the hardboard mill remained suspended since June 15 this year due to crisis of running capital.
According to the managing director, all outdated machines need to be replaced by new ones so that at least 15 lakh square feet of hardboard can be produced every month.
Khulna Hardboard Mill, since its birth in 1965, never underwent BMR (Balancing, Modernisation and Replacement), sources said.
The mill authorities submitted a proposal to BCIC head office in December last year asking for Tk 44 crore for BMR, they said.
We are yet to get any response from BCIC head office whether the fund for carrying out BMR would at all be allocated, the MD said.