General secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation Osman Ali has said their ongoing 48-hour strike will continue until a call for meeting with the government.
His comments came on Sunday in reaction to Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader’s remarks that it would not be possible to meet the workers’ demands before the general elections.
Osman asked why the minister had not told them that it would not be possible to change the law before the next parliament session a month ago when they had sent the letter.
"The minister gave his opinion on the media but he could have talked to us. The matter could be resolved through dialogue," he said while talking over phone, report bdnews24.com and UNB.
“Are we haters of the Awami League? Didn’t we prevent the opposition blockades in 2013 and 2014?” he asked.
“We have no dispute with anyone. Our strike will continue until a meeting with them (ministry),” he added.
Earlier, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said there is no possibility to bring any change in the Road Transport Act right now.
Responding to a query about their next course of programme, Osman said they would announce that on conclusion of the strike on October 30.
The strike was peaceful across the country except some sporadic incidents, he claimed.
The transport workers' leader informed that action was taken against the two transport workers in Jatrabari for pouring black burnt Mobil on the face of a private car driver.
On Saturday, transport workers announced to enforce a 48-hour strike from Sunday morning to press home their eight-point demand.
Their demands include making all the offences by road accident 'bailable', cancellation of the provision of fining Tk 500,000 for involvement in a road accident, keeping a representative from their federation in any probe body formed for road accident, fixing minimum educational qualification for getting driving licence to class-V and stopping police harassment on roads.
