Rejoinder, our reply

5 August 2009, 17:00 PM

In a rejoinder to a Daily Star report published on July 29 headlined 'Jute workers rough up official for arrears,' Kazi Farms Limited claimed that there were some inaccuracies in the report. It said that there were no arrears of any kind as salaries and wages of workers of Peoples Jute Mill were paid as of July 18, the last date of operation. Regarding workers' demand for festival bonus, Kazi Farms said bonus is not due before next Eid. The rejoinder said there was no one named Abdur Rahman as president of the CBA as there was no CBA at all in the past one year and during Kazi's lease period it never employed Rahman in the mill. Refuting the allegations of looting spare parts of the jute mill machinery, Kazi Farms said it took lease of the mill in a dilapidated condition and had to invest over Tk 3 crore to buy spare parts and new machines to make the mill operational. It also termed the information on handing over the mill to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) on August 1 as a rumour. Our reply
The mill workers, who staged demonstration in front of the mill on July 28, told newsmen that the management of the mill did not pay arrear wages for two weeks in July before stopping operation. The workers also demonstrated for payment of festival bonus fearing that they would not get so if Kazi Farms hands over the mill to BJMC. Project Coordinator of the mill Ram Chandra Shannyashi told The Daily Star correspondent on July 28 that authorities had received message from BJMC to take necessary preparations for handing over the mill on August 1. Accordingly, Kazi Farms stopped operation of the mill on July 18. But handover is being delayed, as a 26-member committee formed by BJMC to prepare an inventory of the mills machinery could not complete the task yet.