Sylhet Bureau

Former VP of DUCSU Nurul Haque Noor, president of People's Rights Council, has demanded the interim government to open all the stone and sand mahals of Greater Sylhet which have been closed for seven years.

He said this in his speech as the chief guest at a human chain organized under the banner of stone and sand workers of Sylhet who suffered discrimination in front of the National Press Club on Wednesday noon.

Saiful Haque, general secretary of Biplabhi Workers Party, spoke as the main speaker in the human chain under the chairmanship of senior lawyer Advocate Ariz Ahmed, a resident of Companyganj, Sylhet, the central leader of Nationalist Lawyers Forum and the joint convener of the Interim Committee of Dhaka Metropolitan Bar and led by journalist Abul Hossain.

Abdur Rahman, central president of Labor Rights Council, Abul Hashem, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Dhaka South, Mufti Imam Uddin, advisor of Islamic movement and principal of Jamia Mahmudia Jatrabari Madrasa, former DGM of Palli Vidyut Sirajul Islam, banker and human rights leader Monirul Islam, advocate spoke as guests. At least twenty leaders including Ahmed Kaiser, Ala Uddin, Jaflong labor leader Fakhrul Islam, Zahirul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Bichnakandi labor leader Ajmal Hossain, Utma Pathar Quarry labor leader Tera Mia spoke here.

In the speech of the chief guest, VP Noor said, 9 stones and various sand palaces under the gazette including Companyganj, Goainghat, Jaintapur and Kanighat along Sylhet border have been closed for 7 years. Due to the closure of stone and sand extraction for a long time, ten lakh people and twenty thousand businessmen involved in the main mining profession of the region are living a miserable life without income.

The lives and livelihoods of the people of Greater Sylhet, affected by the global pandemic Covid-19 and the recent catastrophic floods, have become seriously threatened. Due to lack of income, the marginal working people are disoriented. There is currently a silent famine in Sylhet's stone and sand palace-dominated areas.

Millions of people of Sylhet are deprived of income in this crisis of the ongoing economic crisis of the country. Millions of stone workers involved in stone and sand extraction, thousands of truck owners, laborers, thousands of stone crusher mill owners, traders, thousands of shovel workers, hemmer workers and load unload workers are living with their families in dire conditions. When a handful of workers went to lift sand because of their stomachs, the administration subjected them to inhuman and cruel torture.

On the other hand, the country's stone palaces are being closed and stone is being imported from different countries including India at the expense of reserve dollars. As a result, the state reserve has fallen into crisis. It is the need of the hour to open all stone mahals of Sylhet on an urgent basis to save the lives of millions of people and save the state reserve dollars. He also said that the working people of Sylhet are victims of discrimination in many ways.

Although the Awami misrule has fallen due to student movement, yet all the stone and sand palaces of Sylhet have not been opened. In order to save hundreds of thousands of working people and businessmen of Sylhet, I am making a strong demand to the interim government to open all the stone and sand palaces, their only place of work, as soon as possible. Otherwise we will stand by the fair movement of the workers.

In the speech of the special guest, Saiful Haque said that the fallen Awami League government has closed all stone quarries in Sylhet and imported rotten stone from India by depleting the reserve dollar to please India. For the sake of the environment, millions of working people have been unemployed and quarries have been closed. He demanded that all the stone and sand palaces be opened quickly in the traditional manner by protecting the balance of the environment. Otherwise the government will be responsible if any untoward incident happens there.

On the other hand, a huge human chain ceremony was held yesterday at Jaflong Mama's shop at 11 am with the initiative of 56 organizations demanding the opening of the quarry.

Disaster Management distributed GR rice among 1200 tea workers in Sylhet

GR rice is distributed among the poor and unemployed tea workers of Lakkatura, Daldali and Kewapara tea plantations in Sylhet district under the humanitarian assistance program of the Directorate of Disaster Management on Thursday.

The day-long rice distribution programme, 24000 kg of rice was distributed among 1200 families at 20 kg per worker.Organized by Sadar Upazila Parishad and chaired by Sadar Upazila Executive Officer Khoshnoor Rubaiyat, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) of Sylhet Anwar Uz Zaman
was present as the chief guest in the rice distribution ceremony.

District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Abdul Quddus Bulbul, Sadar Upazila Project Implementation Officer Mohammad Hiron Mahmud, Tukerbazar Union Chairman Md. Shafiqur Rahman, Lakkatura tea plantation manager Akter Shaheed, Sylhet Valley Executive Council Bangladesh Tea Workers Union President Raju Goala.