Labour rights activists on Wednesday came up with an eight-point demand, including enactment of policy on battery-run three wheelers such as rickshaws, authorisation of these vehicles and their drivers, and state-supported modernisation of these rickshaws.
They also warned that they would collapse Dhaka city if the authorities dump the battery-run rickshaws destroying the drivers鈥� only means of livelihood.
They placed the demands while addressing a roundtable, organised by Rickshaw, Battery-run Rickshaw-Van and Easybike Sangram Parishad at the Dhaka Reporters Unity auditorium.
On behalf of the organisation, Snehadri Chakravarty presented the eight-point demand. The other points of the demand include establishment of authorised battery-charging stations, training on traffic rules for the drivers of these vehicles, checking extortion, and stopping confiscation of battery-run rickshaws with wreckers and their dumping, and separate lanes for slow-moving transports.
The organisation鈥檚 adviser and Samajtantrik Sramik Front president Rajekuzzaman Ratan said that Dhaka city would collapse if the battery-run rickshaw drivers lost their livelihood means.
Battery-run Rickshaw-Van Sramik Union organising secretary Liton Nandy said that ban on battery-run three wheelers would directly impact around 50 lakh drivers鈥� families.
Manisha Chakrabarty, adviser to the organisation, demanded that a policy from the interim government on the battery-run three wheelers.
Labour reform commission chief Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmad expressed his support to the three wheeler drivers, saying that their demands were justified.
鈥榁iolation of traffic rules may be subjected to fines. But I strongly condemn dumping of the battery-run three wheelers. There shall be a law to prevent such suppressive actions,鈥�
Chaired by Khalequzzaman Lipon, convenor of 鈥楤attery rickshaw-van ebong easybike sangram parishad鈥�, Dhaka University鈥檚 economics professor MM Akash, parishad executive committee member Abu Zafar, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti convener Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, among others, addressed the roundtable.