RMG workers withdraw blockade after 5 hrs

DOT Desk: The agitated workers in Dhaka’s Uttara area withdrew their demonstration five hours after they blockaded the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at the city’s Uttara point, reports Daily Star.
The decision came at 2:00pm following the assurance of the implementation of the new wage board during a meeting with Uttara police and some of the factory owners, Navid Kamal Shoibal, deputy commissioner (Uttra division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), told The Daily Star. Hundreds of passengers have been suffering since morning as garment workers blocked Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at the city’s Uttara point demanding higher salaries.
More than 5,000 workers of nearly 20 garment factories in Azampur and Abdullahpur areas started the demonstration at 9:00am in the morning demanding payment of salaries and higher salaries from the factories.
Nur-e-Azam Miah, officer-in-charge of Airport Police Station, told The Daily Star that the agitating workers of several garment factories in Uttara and Abdullahpur areas put barricades on the Airport intersection around 11:00am.
The blockade halted vehicular movement on the road, creating heavy traffic congestion with hundreds of vehicles stranded on both sides of the road since morning.
Even the airport-bound passengers have been trapped inside the buses and private cars due to the demonstration by the agitated workers.
Passengers travelling to Mymensingh, Netrokona, Sherpur, Gazipur, Manikganj, Tangail, Kishoreganj and Jamalpur districts have also been suffering from the severe traffic congestion.