
Leaders of the Sylhet district unity association of road transport owners and workers on Tuesday postponed their indefinite strike, nearly seven hours after its beginning.
Moynul Hossain, president of Sylhet Zila Sarak Paribahan Bus-Minibus Coach-Microbus Workers Union (Sylhet district road transport workers union of bus, minibus, coach and microbus) told journalists at around 1:00pm that they decided to postpone the strike following an assurance from divisional commissioner to meet their demands.
Sylhet divisional commissioner Khan Md Reza-Un Nabi told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that leaders of the association, Sylhet Zila Sarak Paribahan Malik-Shramik Oikya Parishad, had a meeting with him in the afternoon on the day in which they agreed to withdraw their movement.
‘They agreed to withdraw their movement after a long discussion. We in association with the local leaders of political parties tried to settle the issues of the transport sector through mutual understanding,’ he said.
Sylhet District Transport Workers Union president Md Dilu Miah, emerging from the meeting held at the divisional commissioner office, also told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that they called off the strike after the divisional commissioner’s assurance that their demands would be communicated to the Chief Adviser’s Office and the advisers of ministries concerned.
On the day, transport owners and workers started an indefinite strike in the district from 6:00am to press home their six-point demand, including the cancellation of Section 36 of the Road Transport Act 2018.
Due to the strike no buses left for their destinations from the Sylhet central bus terminal at Kadamtali and Kumargaon bus terminal at Akhalia in the city since morning on the day.Â
Many travellers, crowding the bus terminals and ticket counters of different transport agencies to seek tickets to leave Sylhet, were seen returning empty-handed from the closed ticket counters.
The six-point demand includes opening quarries for extracting stones in manual process, withdrawal of the increased tax imposed on public transport vehicles, reinstating power connections to the stone crusher mills, ending harassment to the transport workers by police and BRTA officers, and withdrawal of Sylhet deputy commissioner Mohammed Sher Mahbub Murad.