Bam Gonotantrik Jote, an alliance of left-leaning parties, organized a human chain in Narayanganj yesterday urging the government to reopen the 25 state-owned jute mills recently declared shut and desist from implementing the public-private partnership programme.
The human chain was held before Narayanganj Press Club at around 11am.
Hafizul Islam, coordinator of Narayanganj Bam Gonotantrik Jote, Shibnath Chakroborty, general secretary of Communist Party Narayangnaj unit and Abu Hasan Tipu, general secretary of Biplobi Workers Party Narayanganj chapter, spoke at the human chain programme.
They said the government had closed down 25 state-owned jute mills on the pretext of losses being incurred by the mills. But the government had not yet taken any initiative to pin down the causes of the losses.
Workers were not responsible for the mills’ closure, for it was rather the corruption, looting and wrong decisions of the Jute Ministry and the BJMC that had brought about the shutdown, they added.
On July 2, the government decided to shut down production at 25 state-run jute mills under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and at the same time clear the dues of some 25,000 workers of the mills.
The decision came at a meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her official residence Ganobhaban.