Leaders of different labour rights organisations on Friday urged the government to reopen 26 nationalised jute mills and nine sugar mills closed during the fascist Awami League regime.
They made the urge at a human chain formed jointly by the Jatiya Sramik Federation, the National Garments Workers Federation and the Ekota Garments Sramik Federation in front of the National Press Club to press the demands.
Addressing the human chain as the chair, labour leader Amirul Haque Amin said that in the past 15 years of misrule of the Sheikh Hasina regime 26 nationalised jute mills and nine sugar mills were closed under the excuse of cumulative losses in the mills.
But, workers were not responsible for the losses, he said and blamed mismanagements for the losses in the mills.
As a result, a huge number of workers became jobless and now passing their days helplessly, Amirul said.
He called on the interim government headed by Professor Muhammad Yunus to take immediate steps to reopen the nationalised mills and bring back Tk 28 lakh crore that was laundered to different countries during the past 15 years鈥� misrule of Sheikh Hasina government.
Labour leader Abul Hossain said that the mismanagement of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation was mainly responsible for the losses in the nationalised jute and sugar mills.
Besides, 64 private jute mills remained closed during the rule of the Awami League, he said.聽聽
Labour leaders聽 ASM Zakaria, Anwar Ali, Lokman Ali, Mohammad Dider Hossain, Monira Munni also spoke.
The then Awami League government on June 2, 2020 closed all the state-owned jute mills, rendering around 50,000 workers jobless overnight.
Six months later, the AL regime, for the last time, decided to suspend production at six state-run sugar mills to 鈥檓inimise the accumulated losses鈥� of the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation.
