Sylhet Bureau :
A transport strike has been announced in Sylhet on 5-point demands including opening of closed stone quarries. Stone-related traders and workers have announced to observe a transport strike from Saturday (July 5) if their demands are not met by Friday.
This announcement was made at a protest rally organized at Court Point in the city on Wednesday (July 2) afternoon.
At the rally, former Sylhet mayor and BNP chairperson’s advisor Ariful Haque Chowdhury expressed solidarity and pledged to stand by the protesters. The five-point demands of the protesters are – opening the closed stone quarries, stopping the campaign to destroy the crusher machines, not detaining trucks transporting stones, stopping harassment and torture of drivers, and removing the Sylhet Deputy Commissioner.
Expressing solidarity at the rally on Wednesday, Ariful Haque Chowdhury said that the demands of the workers and owners are absolutely fair and logical. If the government does not take a positive decision quickly, the economy of Sylhet will come to a standstill. He said, we are in favor of the environment. At the same time, we do not want harm to businessmen and workers. Therefore, it is necessary to allow stone extraction to start in an environmentally friendly manner.
Speakers at the rally complained that the administration is taking unilateral decisions and the campaign carried out in the name of “zero tolerance” policy has pushed workers and owners towards disaster. They said that if these irregularities are not stopped, a transport strike may be called for an indefinite period – the government will have to take responsibility for this. In addition to the leaders of the Stone Owner-Worker Unity Council, representatives of various social organizations and professional organizations participated in the protest and expressed their support for the movement. It is worth noting that on June 14, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Advisor to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and Muhammad Fauzul Kabir Khan, Advisor to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, visited Jaflong, an Environmentally Critical Area (ECA). At that time, stone traders and workers blocked them and protested. After the inspection, Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that in the interest of protecting nature and environment, no stone quarry in Sylhet, including Jaflong, will be leased in the future. On the other hand, to prevent illegal stone trade, Advisor Muhammad Fauzul Kabir Khan instructed the local administration to quickly disconnect the power connection of stone crushing machines in various places in Sylhet. Immediately after receiving the instructions of the two advisors, the local administration started disconnecting the power connection of stone crushing machines from June 16. This operation is going on regularly in some places in Sylhet Sadar, Gowainghat and Companiganj upazilas. The last operation in Companiganj on June 30 destroyed 17 crusher machines, disconnected the power connection of 10 and seized 140,000 cubic feet of stone. Earlier, on June 29, 25 and 18, the power connection of 162 machines was disconnected in Jaflong. In the past few days, about 300 crusher machines have been shut down. It was learned from talking to the residents that in February 2020, the government ordered a ban on the extraction of stone and sand from the quarry. Since then, illegal extraction of stone and sand has been going on under the patronage of local Awami League leaders in the dark of night. After the fall of the government on August 5, the leaders of BNP and its allied organizations took control of the quarry. Thousands of workers started extracting stones under their patronage. These stones were sold to the owners of stone crushing machines. Later, the stones were broken into small pieces by machines and supplied to traders.
