Owners and workers of goods-carrying vehicles will enforce a countrywide 48-hour strike from tomorrow if they could not find a solution from the authorities to their demands, mostly protesting at a recent mobile court drive, said leaders of the two groups on Saturday.

Bangladesh Truck-Covered Van Owners and Workers’ Coordination Council on September 20 sent letters to different ministries and government agencies, saying that it would go for the strike in October 12-13 in protest at a Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority mobile court that ‘vandalised’ trucks on the bank of the River Turag.

The High Court on Thursday directed the government and the police to ensure movements of people and transports during the scheduled strike of the council.

The court observed that calling strike against BIWTA drives against encroachment on the river bank as directed by the Supreme Court was ‘an attack on the rule of law and also an insult to the court’.

Council convener Rustom Ali Khan told New Age on Saturday that the administration did not sit with them and they would be forced to enforce the strike from tomorrow if no solutions came by today.

The council in its September 20 letter alleged that on August 26 BIWTA joint director for port AKM Arif Uddin ‘vandalised’ 17 trucks and drum trucks in Gabtoli Beribadh area and auctioned four trucks with goods without any notice.

Their nine-point demands include compensations to the affected truck owners by the BIWTA, punishment of BIWTA joint director for port AKM Arif Uddin and the executive magistrate, installation of truck terminals and resting places for truck drivers at different spots, end to filing cases under  section 302 without investigation, incorporation of the recommendations of

transport owners and workers’ associations in the  Road Transport Act 2018, fastening of the driving licence issuance process, withdrawal of income tax on vehicles, end to extortion on roads and operation of ferry ghat and terminals by the BIWTA management.

Rustom claimed that they had parked their vehicles temporarily on the bank of the Turag as they did not have parking places.

BIWTA chairman Commodore Golam Sadeq on Saturday told New Age that earlier on October 7 at a meeting they had assured the council of giving compensation to the truck owners affected during the drive.

They also formed a probe committee on the August 26 incident, he said, adding that the drive was legal and the High Court had already given directive on it.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder on Saturday told New Age that the council earlier informed them that it mainly called the strike against the BIWTA drive.  

The High Court on Thursday directed the government and the police to continue ongoing drives to restore the banks of Turag encroached by constructing the truck stand in violation of the High Court’s directive issued in 2009 to save four rivers around the capital.

The court of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Mohi Uddin Shamim issued the directives after hearing a supplementary writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid on behalf of the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh challenging the legality of the strike called against the evictions.

The supplementary writ petition was filed referring to the nine-point directive issued by the High Court’s order of June 25, 2009.

The High Court in its directives ordered the BIWTA and other authorities concerned to demolish all illegal structures and remove the dirt dumped inside the rivers — Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Sitalakhya — passing by the capital.