& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Strike disrupts river transport

Passengers suffer as launch staff enforce non-stop nationwide strike for salary hike, safety, other demands; no move for negotiations

Star Report
A day after Biman workers' seven-hour strike, water transport workers started their indefinite work abstention demanding better wages, crippling launch services between the capital and the Southwest.
Thousands of passengers endured immense sufferings as most of the scheduled launches did not leave the Sadarghat
Launch Terminal in Dhaka.
At Sadarghat around noon yesterday, hundreds of passengers were waiting for launches. Many were boarding one launch, then another, and were asking whether it would set sail.
Some were seen using boats to get on launches anchored mid-river to see if those would go.
The workers at the launches were
telling them that they knew nothing about resuming service.
At least 50-55 launches were scheduled to leave for the districts in the Southwest on 36 routes but only 18 left as of 7:00pm, Saiful Haque, senior deputy director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, told The Daily Star.
Chowdhury Ashiqul Alam, general secretary of Noujan Sramik Federation, claimed that some launch owners kept their vessels in service using unskilled workers.
A number of the federation leaders said their strike would continue until their 16-point demand was met. The federation consists of six organisations of inland water transport workers.
Their demands include ensuring workers' security on waterways, maintaining navigability of rivers, proper fitness certification of all vessels, immediate disposal of cases pending with the marine court.
However, launch owners claimed that workers' demand for revision of their wage was “illegal" and "irrational”.
"The government revised their wage scales in June, 2010. According to the gazette, the new salary structure would be effective from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2013. We cannot understand why they [workers] are continuing with the movement," said Badiuzzaman Badal, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (passenger carriers') Association.
Ashiqul Alam on the other hand said, "We rejected the gazette a day after its issuance. We have been demanding its [salary] restructure since then. Moreover, the price of daily essentials is soaring. Under these circumstances, we are continuing with our movement.1'
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told The Daily Star last night, "We will try to resolve the crisis through discussion with both the parties, water transport owners and workers." The owners are reluctant to increase salaries of workers right now, he said.
As of filing of this report around 9:00pm last night, around 21 hours after the strike was enforced, no meeting was convened by the government to resolve the crisis.
A joint secretary of the Ministry of Labour and
Employment had called for a tripartite meeting on Tuesday afternoon at the ministry to resolve the crisis. But the meeting was of no use as vessel owners did notjoin.
The workers had gone on strike three times before to press home the same demands. They called for work abstention on November 8, 2009; from March 16 to March 19,2010, and from May 8 to May 15, 2010.
The government on June 28, 2010, revised the wage scales for water transport workers, fixing Tk 2,190 as minimum basic wage and Tk 6,720 as maximum basic wage.
Meanwhile, loading and offloading of goods at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port and terminals on the Karnaphuli, and transport of goods and passengers from Chittagong were hampered due to the strike, our Chittagong correspondent reports.
Syed Farhad Uddin Ahmed, secretary of Chittagong Port, told The Daily Star that nothing was offloaded from 12 vessels at the port.
Md Abu Taher, president of Bangladesh Lighterage Sramik Union, told The Daily Star that workers of 400 vessels, 200 tankers and 70-80 fishing vessels joined the strike at Chittagong, bringing all activities to a standstill.
In Barisal, all passenger and cargo vessels stayed put from early yesterday. No vessel on the 26 routes from Barisal River Port left their terminals.
However, BIWTC Rocket Steamer PS Lepcha and PS Mahsud did ply the Dhaka-Morelganj route as usual but were overloaded with passengers, said Prangopal Majumdar, assistant general manager BIWTC Barisal station.
Our Chandpur correspondent reports: No launch had set sail from there yesterday. Thousands of passengers got stranded at Chandpur and Echlee launch terminals in the morning and some of them headed for Dhaka by road.
Many people, including those intending to join the Biswa Ijtema in Tongi, got stranded at terminals in Bhola, reports a correspondent in Bhola.
Meanwhile, our Madaripur correspondent reported that vessels plied normally on the Mawa-Kawrakandi-Majhikandi route.