Speakers at a seminar on Saturday urged the government to reopen the closed state-run jute mills and pay all dues of the sacked workers.
They also demanded reopening the six state-run closed sugar mills, expediting the ongoing modernisation work of the mills, write off Tk 30.85 billion loans taken by the mills and allocating 25 per cent subsidy for purchasing sugarcane.
They raised the demands at a seminar organised by 'Workers-Farmers-Students-Public Unity to Save the Jute Mills' at Nasrul Hamid Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity at Segunbagicha in the capital.
Prof Anu Muhammad, Dr Mobarak Ahmed Khan, Dr Tanjim Uddin Khan, Jonayed Saki, and Maha Mirza, among others, took part in the discussion.
The speakers sought sufficient allocation in the upcoming budget for fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 to help revive the state-run jute and sugar mills.
They also recommended increasing productivity of sugarcane to 30 tonnes per acre from the existing output of 18-20 tonnes through introducing high-yielding varieties and providing incentives to the farmers so that they plant the high-yielding variety.
They also suggested allocating one-time financial allocation for reactivating the state-owned jute mills and making it mandatory for the government offices to purchase jute products.
The closure of jute mills has left 70,000 workers jobless and around 5.6 million farmers into uncertainties about selling their raw jute.
Earlier on June 30, 2020, the government shutdown 26 state-run jute mills due to recurrence of financial losses to the tune of Tk 100 billion.
Though the Textiles and Jute Minister had pledged to pay all the dues, 8,463 workers of five jute mills are yet to get even a single penny.
Over 18,000 workers of the other jute mills did not also get their arrears despite the Ministry of Finance already disbursed the money, the seminar was told.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com