Workers of Tarapur tea garden in Sylhet blocked a road on Saturday demanding payment of their due salaries.
Several hundreds of workers blocked the Goabari road around 11.00 am in front of Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya medical college hospital to press home their demand.
According to the local people, the agitating workers also protested against leasing out the garden land where three shops were constructing and demanded immediate eviction of the shops,
Being informed, Jalalabad police station and Biman bandar police station forces of Sylhet metropolitan police rushed to the spot and persuaded the agitated workers to withdraw their blockade and resumed the traffic movement, the police said.
Jalalabad police station officer-in-charge Saiful Islam said that the workers and the governing body members of the tea garden would solve the problems through a discussion among themselves supposed to be held in the evening.
Panchayet Committee president of Tarapur tea garden Sanjib Roy told reporters that the tea garden authorities did not complete the payment of their arrear salaries that had been determined by the prime minister in the August last year.
‘Besides, they did not pay the regular wages of last two weeks, forcing us to take the street after boycotting work,’ he said.
Sanjib alleged that the authorities also leased out a piece of land of the garden for constructing three shops that sparked anger among the workers who demanded immediate eviction of the shops.
He said that the police sat with the tea garden leaders in the afternoon to solve the issues through discussion but they failed to reach in a decision in this regard.
‘We will continue our movement to press home the demands. The Pannchayet Committee will sit in a meeting in the evening to determine the next course of action,’ Sanjib said in the afternoon.
Being contacted, Tarapur tea garden manager Rinku Chakrabarti said that they were trying to solve the issue through discussion.
‘No new shop has been constructed, an existing shop is being expanded. It is being done with proper permission of the authorities to increase earning of the garden,’ he claimed.
