Temp staff blockade rail link with Dhaka for 5 hours
They want their jobs to be regularised
Rail communications between Dhaka and other districts were suspended for nearly five hours on Sunday due to a blockade by a section of temporary workers of the Bangladesh Railway.
At least seven intercity trains were delayed due to the protest, said railway officials. At around 3pm, police charged batons and dispersed the protesters from the rail tracks, allowing rail communication to resume.
Kamalapur Railway Police Station has detained at least 23 protesting workers. A police officer told The Business Standard that a case against the workers would be filed and they would be produced before the court on Monday morning.
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Earlier on Sunday, railway workers blockaded the rail tracks at the capital's Malibagh area demanding permanent employment and job regularisation, snapping rail connection between the capital and the rest of the country.
Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Masud Sarwar told The Business Standard that seven trains were left stranded with thousands of passengers on board at 10:30am on Sunday.
The workers' representative Mohammad Hossain said no solution was found regarding permanent employment of temporary staff even after repeated meetings with the railway minister, railway secretary and other railway authorities.
The protesting workers demanded reinstating of temporary worker jobs, making their employment permanent, cancellation of outsourcing practices and the amendment of recruitment rules 2020 to keep the minimum educational requirement at Class V for fourth-grade employees.
Earlier, on 16 July, the contractual employees of the railway blocked the tracks at the FDC railway gate of the capital to demand permanent employment. Later, in the presence of the police, the agitators withdrew after a meeting with Jahangir Hossain, general manager of Bangladesh Railway (East Zone).
