Commuters suffer as transport strike in Sylhet division rolls into 2nd day

Commuters of Sylhet continued to suffer as road communication of the division with the rest of the country remained suspended for the second consecutive day today.

Greater Sylhet Stone-related Traders and Workers Union along with transport workers reportedly enforced the strike at 6:00am yesterday with a demand to resume stone extraction.

Read more: Sylhet at a standstill

Since yesterday morning, transport workers put blockades at all important roads around Sylhet city, district towns and other major upazila towns of the division.

They are seen blocking ways of private vehicles too, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

Sobibur Rahman, a vegetable trader, said a covered truck carrying his vegetables could not enter Sylhet city as picketers blocked Humayun Rashid Chattar, one of the entry points to the city.

"I needed to hire push-carts to take the vegetables to the depot. That will raise the prices of vegetables and consumers will have to bear the brunt," he said.

Businessmen hire push-carts to take vegetables to depots of Sylhet city on December 23, 2020. Photo: Sheikh Nasir

While visiting several kitchen markets in the city, this correspondent witnessed shortage of necessary daily perishable commodities. The prices of commodities had gone up as well.

Abdul Jalil, convenor of the union that called the strike, said, "The 72-hour strike will continue till Friday morning if the government does not meet our demand. There are lakhs of people in need and we must think of them."

Contacted, Mohammad Mashiur Rahman, divisional commissioner of Sylhet, said, "The government has banned stone extraction in Sylhet to save the environment. We are trying to come up with an amicable solution through talking with the stone traders and workers."

"However, we don't know why transport leaders and workers joined the strike as the demand is not related to them; it's only causing public suffering," he said.