Police identify 50 trouble makers, 50 trouble prone units

Garment sector unrest 
Police have identified over 50 people, particularly labour leaders and jhut (garment cloth waste) traders, who are responsible for creating anarchy in the country’s largest foreign exchange earning readymade garment (RMG) sector.
These unscrupulous people are responsible for creating unrest in Ashuliya-Savar and Mirpur-Tejgaon industrial belts in Dhaka district, Gazipur-Tongi-Joydebpur-Sreepur and Konabari-Kashempur-Mawna belts in Gazipur district, Fatullah-Rupganj-Narayanganj Sadar belt in Narayanganj district, police sources said.
Intelligence vigilance has already been beefed up in and around the industrial belts to monitor the overall activities of those type of people and to collect information regarding the garment violence in advance to stop recurrence of such incidents that also usually hamper export of garment products abroad.
Police also identified over 50 garment factories, as vulnerable to unrest in the garment belts. Because of irregular payment of salaries and overtime bills the factories are identified as vulnerable, some senior police officials said. The unscrupulous people taking advantage of irregularities instigate the labourers to go for vandalism, they said.
Talking to this correspondent superintendent of police (SP) of Dhaka Iqbal Bahar told on Wednesday, ” We have identified 25 people, mainly labour leaders and jhut traders as troublemakers in the Savar-Ashuliya garment belt. Two of them had already been arrested and sent to jail and some of them went to the High Court (HC) and got interim bail in the cases filed against them regarding the recent violence in Ashuliya.”
“Intelligence vigilance has been beefed up surrounding the area to protect the garment factories and monitor the activities of some labour leaders and jhut traders in the areas,” the Dhaka district police chief said.
“Over 890 garment factories are housed in Ashuliya and Savar areas and of them 800 are located in Ashuliya,” he said, adding, 
“We have also identified 25 garment factories in Savar-Ahuliya belt as vulnerable, as these garment do not pay salary and overtime allowance regularly,” he said.
“Taking the advantages of the irregular payment of salary some unscrupulous labour leaders and jhut traders instigate the labours for creating unrest,” he added.    
SP of Narayanganj district Biswas Afzal Hossain told this correspondent yesterday, ” There are over 2,500 small and big industries at Fatullah and Rupganj thana areas where over 11 lakh people have been working. Of the factories, over 300 are housed in BSCIC areas and the rest are located at Katherpul, Kashipur, Pagla, Kanchpur and Narayanganj Sadar. A total of 16 factories including NR Garment, Palmal Group, Hamid Fashion and Metro Fashion were found vulnerable.” 
“We have identified 25 people, mainly labour leaders and jhut traders responsible for creating anarchy in Fatullah-Rupganj industrial belt,” he said, adding, “All of them are under intelligence watch.”    
SP of Gazipur district SM Mahfuzul Nuruzzaman, BPM, told this correspondent yesterday, “I am yet to know about the exact figure of the trouble makers in the Gazipur garment belt, as I took the charge as SP of Gazipur only a month ago.”
“But, I have already directed all the officers-in-charge (OCs) of the police stations in Gazipur district to prepare lists of the people responsible for the unrest in the garment sector. After getting the lists, I can tell the exact number of the troublemakers,” he added.    
Talking to this correspondent Nazma Rahman, President Sammilito Garments Sramik Federation denied the allegation of instigating workers by the labour leaders to go for vandalism in the name of movement.
“Please find out the labour leaders responsible for the garment unrest and punish them,” she said.
“We (labour leaders) have no interest in doing so, the people who come to state power might have been involved in the misdeed,” she claimed.    
She said, “The labour unrest mainly takes place following sacking of workers from jobs, closing down of the factories, freeze on pay hikes and irregular payments, misbehaviour with the workers by the owners and jhut (cloth left-overs) trading.”
Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association) told this correspondent yesterday, “We have industry and the government has duty to provide security to those.”
“There are several intelligence agencies and it is their duty to find out the people responsible for creating anarchy in the garment sector and punish them, because none of above the law” he said.

Courtesy of The Independent