The Rickshaw Van Workers Union has demanded that battery-powered rickshaws be improved without being removed from the roads. The demand was made at a protest rally in front of the National Press Club on Saturday (August 26th).
The drivers said that their decision to stop bread and butter should be canceled and the rickshaw body proposed by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) should be allowed to run on the road with improved speed controller and better brakes.
Labor leader Hazrat Ali said a conspiracy was going on to take off the batteries of the battery-powered rickshaws and cut off their livelihood. Don’t force us to take to the streets. The Prime Minister’s child will be the Prime Minister, the doctor’s child will be the doctor and the engineer’s child will be the engineer and the rickshaw puller’s child will be the rickshaw puller.
Jolly Talukder, general secretary of the Garment Workers Trade Union, said battery-powered rickshaws were being discontinued in our country. But as I saw in Chicago, USA, there are also battery-powered rickshaws.
He added that most of the participants in the great liberation war were poor hardworking people. The present government is betraying the spirit of the liberation war by taking a decision to stop the livelihood of those poor working people. Therefore, the struggle to ensure the real liberation of the working people of this country through the establishment of a government of poor working people must be accelerated.
In his speech, Labor leader Shahadat Khan said that the decision to ban battery-powered rickshaws for the poor should be canceled and they should be modernized. They have to make arrangements to save with a license.
At the end of the rally, a demonstration procession turned to Kadam Fountain and ended at Paltan. Rickshaw van workers union leader Ariful Islam Nadim, transport workers union office secretary labor leader Hazrat Ali, TUC Dhaka metropolitan committee organizing secretary Md. Akhter Hossain, the central acting general secretary of the student union Ragib Naeem, the organizing secretary of the slum union. Nuruzzaman etc.