19 April 2021
Speakers in a press conference on Monday demanded the strictest legal measure against the sponsor and financiers of the Banshkhali under-construction coal power plant, and the members of the police force for being responsible for killing 5 workers of the said plant on Saturday.
They also called for an immediate withdrawal of the cases filed against the workers which could essentially harass them by criminalising their peaceful protest.
The virtual press conference was jointly organised by the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED), NGO Forum on ADB, Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), Re-course, and Urgewald.
In the press conference, Abdul Gani (pseudonym), a welder of the Banshkhali power plant for three months gave his firsthand account of Saturday’s incident.
Five workers by the police were shot dead on Saturday when the workers of Banshkhali power plant were protesting for their due wages at a China-backed under-construction coal power plant.
Gani told that the workers at the plant were appointed by a subcontractor led by a local syndicate, controlled by the local Chairman Liaqat Ali, member Kamal Hossain and another called Abu Ahammed.
“The syndicate takes BDT 5000 BDT in advance for the worker’s job, BDT 2000 for clothing and 10% of the monthly salary of each worker. Before lockdown, we worked for 12 hours without any overtime pay. The salary was BDT 18,000 in two shifts. After lockdown, the work hour came down to 10 hours, but no overtime”.
“As we don’t have any trade union, we demanded 8-hours work in the month of Ramadan, 1-hour break on Fridays for Jumma prayer and overtime payment. We also demanded advanced salary during Eid as we usually get our salary 10-15 days past the next month”.
According to Gani, as their demand was not met, they stopped working on Saturday and started to protest. Suddenly, police from the nearest station and the subcontractor’s gang members wearing police cloth came and started beating the workers.
“We started fleeing the scene, threw some bricks for self-protection. Then the police started throwing tear shells, rubber bullets followed by an open fire. 4 Were spot dead”.
Gani claimed that two criminal cases have been filed following the incident, but none of the main culprits was accused. He also claims that if the workers weren’t attacked, nothing would have happened.
“Our demand was not a very serious one. We demanded overtime pay because everything is so expensive here in the power plant during the lockdown and in the month of Ramadan. Rice is BDT 80 a kilo”.
“How could we keep up with this? Ahmed Reza, who was killed by the police was a mere student. He just started working for 2 weeks as a helper to support his family”, said Gani.
Environmentalist Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) demanded the government to scrap the power plant deal as the sponsors were incapable of dealing with the project.
“The owner has to be held responsible for the behaviours of the contractors and subcontractors. This power plant doesn’t have endorsement from the local people, this is not the first time killing happened in Banshkhali. If the first incident in 2016 were investigated by a neutral judicial body, the same thing wouldn’t have happened again”, she added.
Terming the workers killing a heinous act, Lidy Nacpil from APMDD said that the coal plants are doing greater harm to our climate, now these coal plant owners are not even doing justice to their workers. The owner and the financiers of the plant should be held accountable for their actions.
Rayyan Hasan from NGO Forum on ADB termed the event as an absolute violation of human and constitutional rights.
“We demand that all financiers of the project including Bank of China, China Exim are held accountable for their lack of safeguarding of the workers”.
Knud Vocking from Urgewald, Petra Kejll from Re-course, Sinologist Nora Sausmikat, Bar-at-law Jyotirmoy Barua and BWGED convener Dr Kazi Maruful Islam also spoke at the press conference.
The 2.5 billion-dollar, 1200 MW coal power plant, 30 per cent owned by Chinese engineering giant SEPCOIII, has been at the centre of other deadly protests in recent years.
Rights activists say the power plant, 70 per cent owned by the S. Alam Group does not meet environmental impact standards and was built without public consultation.
It is one of the biggest investments made by Chinese companies in Bangladesh. The deal was one of many announced when President Xi Jinping visited in 2016.
