Petrol pump and tank-lorry owners and workers are mulling over going for a tougher programme next week after enforcing a nine-hour strike at petrol pumps on Sunday to press their 12-point demand.
‘We will set the next course of action at a meeting scheduled for next Friday with the regional leaders and representatives of petrol pump owners and workers,’ Bangladesh Petrol Pump and Tank-Lorry Owners-Workers Unity Council president Mohammad Nazmul Huq told New Age on the day.
He said that they had successfully enforced the strike and now they were thinking of a tougher programme as the government remained silent about their demands.
Bus-truck owners’ association leaders, however, said that the strike did not hamper movement of vehicles as the programme was announced a week ago.
Besides, the strike was for only nine hours from 6:00am to 3:00pm, they said.
The main demand of the council is cancellation of high land lease charge recently imposed by the Roads and Highways Department for the use of its land by petrol pump owners for running their pumps.
The other demands include increasing commissions on the sale of petroleum, fares of the tanks and lorries, introducing a Tk 5 lakh accident insurance coverage for tank-lorry workers, re-fixing evaporation and operational loss at reasonable level, giving priority to tank-lorries at the ferry terminals, banning the sale of petroleum fuel by private refiners to petrol pumps to check the fuel adulteration or allowing them under necessary legal framework.
Construction of new terminals for tank-lories in new locations and renovation of old terminals, reviewing the existing policy for petrol pump set-up and stopping police harassment in tank-lorry operation are also among their demands.
Source: New age
