Khulna div transport strike causes public suffering

Commuters have been facing untold sufferings as transport owners and workers enforced a 48-hour strike in 10 districts of Khulna division this morning.

Khulna Division Road Transport Owners-Workers’ Unity Council enforced the strike demanding the withdrawal of two compensation cases filed against the owners of Chuadanga “Deluxe Paribahan” and “Green Line Paribahan”.

Road communications between southwestern and northern region remain halted as no transport vehicles are plying the roads since morning due to the strike, reports our Kushtia correspondent.

Contacted, Member-secretary of the council Abdur Rahim said they had no alternative but to call the strike because it was matter of their existence.

“Accidents are a common phenomenon on roads. So, if compensation cases involving crore of money is filed every day, how we will survive?,” Rahim explained to the correspondent over phone in the morning.

The strike is going on peaceful, said Zinarul Islam, president of the body in Chuadanga unit.   

The lawsuits include the Tk 12 crore compensation case filed against the owner and driver of Chuadanga ‘Deluxe Paribahan’ in connection with the road crash on Dhaka-Aricha highway on August 13, 2011 that left noted filmmaker Tareque Masud, media personality Mishuk Munier and three other people dead.

Besides, two cases were filed against Green Line Paribahan claiming Tk 131.7 million as compensation over the death of an Awami League leader, who died in a road crash by a bus in Sylhet on October 25, 2012.