Cotton mills owners in Magura incur big loss due to blockade

MAGURA, Mar 12: Cotton mills owners in Magura have incurred a loss of Tk 20 million (2 crore) due to ongoing 'blockade and hartal'.

According to Magura District Cotton Mills Owners Association, the number of cotton mills in the district is 28. About one thousand workers are on the payroll of the mills. But continuous blockade has crippled the owners as well as the workers. Every month cotton worth Tk at least 10 million (one core) is transported from Magura to different parts of the country.

But due to blockade transport owners are demanding abnormal fare. In this situation transportation of cotton is being hampered. Consequently 28 cotton mills owners and one thousand workers are facing hard time as the mills are now inoperative.

When contacted, Azizar Rahman, a cotton mill owner of Vitashair area of  Magura town said earlier we paid Tk 12,000 to Tk 15,000 per truck for transporting cotton to Dhaka from Magura. Now the truck owners are   demanding Tk 25,000 to Tk 30,000. If such increased amount for transport cost is spent we shall incur substantial loss. For this we have stopped production of cotton in our mills.

Amena Begum, a cotton mill worker in Kashinathpur area under Magura sadar upazila said we do not get salary from cotton mills. Owners pay us on work basis. At present as there is no work in our mill we are sitting idle and passing hard days.

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