Symbolic Action to Realise 11-pt Demand
Life in Khulna comes to halt for a few munites
Kids play cricket on a deserted road as Khulna city comes to a standstill for half an hour yesterday morning in a bid to realise its 11-point demand.Photo: STAR
Normal life in the metropolitan city came to a virtual standstill for half an hour yesterday as citizens stopped work to realise 11-point demand. Earlier, the Greater Khulna Development Action Coordination Committee (KDACC) called the work abstention programme from 10:30 to 11.00am. All shops and business establishments under all the five police stations in the city kept their shutters down and all modes of vehicles including passenger buses remained off the roads while classes at all academic institutions including the two universities were not held during the period. Financial transactions in state-owned and private banks and insurance companies, works in government offices and autonomous bodies and mills and factories also remained suspended. People from all walks of life including students, industrial workers, leaders and activists of different political parties, members of professional and socio-cultural organisations brought out a procession at 11:30pm. Khulna city mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque, BNP lawmaker Nazrul Islam Manju and administrator of Khulna Zila Parishad Sheikh Harun-ar-Rashid were at the head of the procession. Mayor Khaleque, while addressing a big rally near Picture Place Cinema Hall, said his government took up all positive steps to implement development projects of Khulna division. So, there is nothing to be worried, he said. On the other hand, BNP lawmaker Nazrul Islam Manju said that time was running out fast for the present government as there were only two years left for national elections. None of eleven demands has so far been fulfilled, the BNP lawmaker remarked. The 11-point demand includes reopening of all closed industries including Khulna Newsprint Mill, Daulatpur Jute Mill, Hardboard Mill and Dada Match Factory, supply of gas through pipelines, infrastructural development of Mongla seaport, establishment of an agriculture university in Khulna, modernisation of Khulna rail station, construction of Padma Bridge at Mawa, development of tourism centering the Sundarbans, renovation of all damaged roads including Khulna-Jessore, Khulna-Satkhira and Khulna-Mongla highways, modernisation of Bhomra land port and installation of a 300 megawatt power plant at Goalpara in Khulna city. President of GKDACC Alhaj Daud Ali said in his speech that the movement will continue till all these eleven demands are not met fully.
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