Goods carrying vehicles strike postponed

Leaders of truck and lorry owners and workers associations postponed their nationwide strike last night following a meeting with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan at the secretariat.

"We have agreed to postpone our strike following the home minister's assurance that our demands will be met," Hossain Ahmed Majumder, coordinator of Bangladesh Truck, Covered Van, Tank Lorry, Prime Mover Owners' and Workers' Coordination Council, told The Daily Star after the meeting.

Transport association leaders held the meeting with the home minister over the strike which began on Friday morning to press home their demands, including reduction in hiked prices of diesel and kerosene and withdrawal of "additional" toll money at Bangabandhu Bridge and the Mukterpur Bridge.  The meeting began around 8:00pm.

Talking to The Daily Star, Mokbul Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Covered-Van Truck Prime Mover Goods Transport Owners' Association, said the meeting recommended that top business bodies, including the BGMEA, would sit with them and set fares rationally.

Both Majumder and Mokbul claimed that the meeting recommended withdrawal of the "additional" toll imposed recently on vehicles crossing the Bangabandhu Bridge and the Mukterpur Bridge.

Contacted, two top government officials, who attended the meeting, however, said no decision on the toll was taken at the meeting. The Daily Star could not reach the home minister for comments in this regard.

The owners and workers were also assured that steps would be taken to address some toll-related issues with city corporations, meeting sources said.

The government on Wednesday hiked the price of each litre of diesel and kerosene by 23 percent or Tk 15 to cut losses of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) following the rise in fuel prices in the international market.

Road transport associations, mostly those of the owners, started an indefinite strike of public transport, trucks and lorries from Friday morning. Later launch owners joined in the strike from Saturday, intensifying people's sufferings.

Both bus and launch owners withdrew their strike on Sunday evening after the government decided to rise bus fare up 28 percent and launch fare up to 43 percent. But, the strike of goods laden vehicles continued till the meeting ended last night.

Meanwhile, activities at the Chattogram port and 19 private inland container depot's (ICDs) started to return to normalcy after around 88 hours following withdrawal of the country-wide strike enforced by the goods-carrying transport owners and workers.