Adamjee suppliers warn of hunger strike if dues not paid in 15 days
Staff Correspondent
About 1,500 farmers and traders yesterday warned to go on hunger strike if the government does not pay up their Tk 22 crore dues for jute and other materials supplied to Adamjee Jute Mills within the next 15 days.A committee representing the traders and farmers at a press conference said the laid off mill owed them a total of Tk 44 crore, of which the government so far had paid them only half, Tk 22 crore, in June last year, that too after much agitation. Claiming that 40 to 50 thousand people are directly suffering from the default, Khorshed Ahmed Dulal, joint convenor of the committee, declared, "If the government doesn't pay us our bills within the next 15 days, we'll fast unto death in front of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) office." Dulal also accused the BJMC of harassing them by procrastination. "Though the government promised to clear all dues within three months from the closure of the jute mill, it is far from keeping its words," said Kiron Shankar Das, a trader who owes Tk 363,000 to the government for jute supplied to the mill. The mill, which used to buy 20 lakh metric tons of jute a year on an average through 36 purchasing centres, was shut down on July 1, 2002.
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