Jute traders begin sit-in at BJMC

Jute traders from all over the country started a three-day sit-in in front of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) yesterday, demanding payment of their dues.

On the first day, the protesters chanted slogans like "Why is BJMC silent?" "Where is our money? Speak up BJMC," and "We demand the prime minister's intervention".

With these slogans written on banners and posters, hundreds of jute traders, many of whom wearing funeral robe, took position in front of the BJMC office in Dhaka's Motijheel commercial area.

"We have been asking for our dues for years. We went to the mills' authorities. We staged demonstrations in districts. But, we didn't get any response from the corporation. All of a sudden, all the mills were closed without paying our bills. In this way, we have been forced to come to Dhaka and start this programme," said Md Siam Hossain, executive member, Bangladesh Jute Traders' Association (BJTA).

Around 2,000 jute traders from across the country, who are the members of BJTA, have been supplying raw jute to 25 state-run jute mills, all of which have been closed upon a government order from July 1, according to a press release of BJTA.

From 2016-17 to 2019-20 fiscal years, these jute traders have pending bills of Tk 265 crore against the supplied raw jute for the mills, it said.

BJMC has sold jute products worth Tk 332 crore which could be spent to clear the pending bills, the release further said.

Md Jahangir Alam, a member of BJTA and one of the protesters, said, "BJMC has sold out the stockpiled products and they are using the revenues to disburse the pending salaries of their workers and officers. In the middle of it, we are failing to pay the bank loans and interests. We cannot pay our workers as the raw jute processing mills, our only source of income, are closed. The banks have filed cases against many of us for failing to pay the instalments."

"If BJMC does not clear our bills immediately, we with our family members will be compelled to beg on the streets," added Alam.

However, BJMC has stated that it might not be possible for them to clear these pending bills within the current fiscal year.

"According to the government order, we shall pay Tk 5,000 crore to the workers to clear their due wages, arrears and other benefits within this fiscal year. Then, in the next fiscal year, we shall pay the bank loans, utility bills and dues that we owe to the jute traders. We are extremely busy in calculating each and every worker's pending wage and benefit at this moment. We have requested the jute traders to understand our situation and have patience," BJMC chairman Abdur Rouf told The Daily Star.