The Rangpur District Motor Workers Union withdrew their indefinite strike about Saturday noon after they had reached a negotiation with the district administration.
The union called the strike for an indefinite period from Saturday morning, pressing home their five-point demand.
The demands included immediate repairs of the central bus terminal and Dhaka coach stand in Rangpur town, banning movement of different kinds of human haulers, including tractors, pickup vans and power tillers, and battery-run auto-rickshaws on the highways, and closure of the sales centres of auto-rickshaws in the district.
Meanwhile, with the beginning of the strike in the morning traffic movement from seven northern districts, namely Rangpur, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Lalmanirhat, Dinajpur, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon, to the rest of the country snapped.
The high officials of the administration, including deputy commissioner BM Enamul Haque, police superintendent Saleh Mohammad Tanvir, director of labour department (Rajshahi) Abdur Rashid, and district unit Awami League leaders were present at the emergency meeting with the union held at the DC office.
The administration assured the union leaders that the government would soon take steps to meet their demands.
Following the meeting, the union secretary, Abdul Mazid, said, 'We have withdrawn our strike as the district administration and local political leaders pledged to meet our demands immediately.'
Consideration of the sufferings the strike would cause to the homebound people on the eve of Eid ul-Fitr also influenced their decision of calling off the programme, he said.
They would launch even tougher movement after Eid if the authorities failed to respond timely, he added.
Traffic movement resumed on the highways of the region about 3:00pm.
Source : New Age
