CNG-run auto-rickshaw and light vehicle workers have demanded food and cash support during the 'strict nationwide lockdown' that begins on July 1, followed by three days of 'partial restrictions' starting Monday.
Placing a seven-point demand at Shishu Kalyan Parishad Auditorium in the city, leaders of the Bangladesh Auto-Rickshaw Light Vehicle Transport Workers Federation (BALTWF) said the workers in the transport sector are in dire straits now after being forced to spend their savings to make ends meet.
The seven-point demand includes food rationing, cash-aid support, health safety equipment and vaccination; issuance of driving licences without hassles, stopping police harassment and resumption of the registration process of light vehicles.
"The repeated lockdowns have become a threat to our livelihoods as many of us have become unemployed during the strict restrictions," BALTWF Secretary Golam Faruk said. "It will not be possible for us to survive the situation without the direct support of the government."
"We have already urged different government offices to provide us with direct food and cash aid so that our families can survive," the BALTWF secretary added, reports UNB.