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4 years ago

BJMC seeks Tk 11b from government

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The ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) has sought a fresh allocation of over Tk 11 billion from the government for the state-run Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), officials said.

Of the amount, Tk 10 billion will be spent for jute procurement by the BJMC and Tk 1.30 billion for payment of wages and allowances of workers of the state egency.

They said a letter was sent to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on November 13, seeking the funds for procuring raw jute in the fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 and payment of jute workers and staffers' dues.

Currently, jute traders, workers, labourers and other staffers have been forming human chains demanding payment of their dues, he said.

An urgent meeting was held over the situation with State Minister for Labour and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian in the chair.

The meeting decided to seek allocation of the fund for the state-agency BJMC.

"The mills under BJMC have financially gone broke. For this reason, the employees of the state-run mills are also in trouble," a BJMC official said.

An official at the Finance Division said, "We have received a letter from the MoTJ seeking funds. We are working on the issue."

At present, BJMC is the biggest employer in the industrial sector of the country. It provides direct jobs to about 70,000 workers as well as 5,500 officers and employees supporting the livelihood of around 6.0 million farm families.

More than 50 million people are directly or indirectly involved with the jute and jute industry. Now the state-run entity is operating 26 mills, including three non-jute industries. There are seven mills in Dhaka zone, ten in Chattogram and nine in Khulna.

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