A meeting of concerned citizens has been held by the Bagerhat Bus Owners Association to protest the closure of long distance transport from Sarankhola. The protest meeting was held at Sarankhola Press Club auditorium at 7 pm on Monday. In the meeting, it was discussed that if long-distance transport is not allowed to operate within 48 hours as before, a larger movement will be announced. On Monday (June 6) morning, the inter-district bus owners' association abruptly stopped all long-distance transport. As a result, thousands of workers and ordinary passengers of Sarankhola and Morelganj Upazilas fell into extreme suffering.
Sarankhola Upazila Chairman Raihan Uddin Shant, Sarankhola Upazila Awami League General Secretary Asaduzzaman Milon, Press Club President Ismail Hossain Liton, General Secretary Mohidul Islam, Journalist Sheikh Mohammad Ali, Babul Das, Teacher Akhtaruzzaman Talukder, Transport Counter Director Jamal Akon, Masud Jomaddar. Gulzar Hawladar, Abu Taleb spoke.
The speakers said that the Bagerhat Bus and Minibus Owners' Association had issued a notice in a letter announcing closure of long-distance transport including Dhaka and Chittagong from June 8. The train, which left Sharankhola on Monday morning and left Dhaka, stopped at the Bagerhat bus stand on Monday morning. When there was a widespread reaction through social media, the owners were forced to convene a meeting of the association and conditionally release the limited number of transports. Later on June 8, they announced that they would make the final decision. The declaration of the owners' association is a violation of human rights.
They said the government's failure to stop transport at the Upazila level just before the inauguration of the Padma Bridge was tarnishing its image. People will have to suffer a lot to change the two buses from Sharankhola and Morolganj to Bagerhat and get on long distance transport. Therefore, they announced that a larger movement would be launched from June 9 if the normal long-distance transport was obstructed as usual from Wednesday.
It may be mentioned that a notice signed by the President and General Secretary of the Inter-District Bus-Minibus-Coach and Microbus Owners' Association on June 3 was sent to various departments of the administration including all long distance transport owners, managers and counter directors on Sunday afternoon.
This notice provides instructions not to operate long distance transport from the Upazila level. When the news spread, the announcement of this whimsical decision to stop long-distance transport just before the inauguration of the dream Padma Bridge caused a storm of protest through social media.
Earlier, in 2011, the district owners' association had stopped long-distance transport from the upazila headquarters. At that time the transport was closed for about a week. At that time there was a massive movement and when a writ was filed in the High Court about this, the transport movement was resumed.