The Rickshaw, Battery Rickshaw-Van and Easy Bike Sangram Parishad held a one-hour sit-in program in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Thursday morning with eight-point demands.
The program lasted from 11 am to 12 noon. The leaders and activists of the organization took up positions on the sidewalk in front of the Press Club along with a procession and raised eight-point demands, including finalizing the ‘Smooth Management and Control Policy for Three-Wheeler and Similar Motor Vehicles-2024’ for battery-powered vehicles and publishing it in the gazette immediately.
Other demands of the Sangram Parishad include—
- Registration of Easy Bike and battery-powered vehicles as per the policy, issuance of licenses and route permits to drivers.
- Modernization of battery-powered vehicles through technical development.
- Protecting the lives and livelihoods of 6 million workers and 25 million people dependent on them without stopping battery-powered vehicles.
- Ensuring compensation, medical treatment and rehabilitation of workers killed and injured in accidents.
- Establish charging stations for battery-powered vehicles to prevent power wastage and theft.
- Create service roads or by-lanes for low-speed vehicles on every road and stop confiscating rickshaws and easy bikes.
- Provide adequate training to drivers, establish discipline on the road, take effective measures to stop extortion and harassment.
- Ensure pension and free medical treatment for all workers.
Convener of the council, Khalequzzaman Lipon, said that the government has assured that their eight-point demands will be implemented after the next few meetings. To achieve the demands, the drivers will hold a sit-in program in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on February 27 along with their families. If the demands are not met, rickshaws from all over the country will be
