Gatekeepers of level crossings withdraw protest

Temporary gatekeepers of level crossings have withdrawn their protest programme last night after the railway authorities assured them of regularising their jobs.
They took the decision after a meeting between top officials of Bangladesh Railway and representatives of the protesting gatekeepers.
“We have already started process to regularise them and assured them to expedite the process,” Bangladesh Railway Director General Sardar Shahadat Ali told The Daily Star.
Tareq Aziz, who claimed to be an assistant coordinator of the gatekeepers’ protest, said the authority took 40 days’ time to complete their process.
“So, we have withdrawn our programme,” he told this correspondent.
Asked about the 40-day deadline, Shahadat Ali said they would complete the process by early November.
Earlier, several hundred temporary gatekeepers of level crossings, who are demonstrating from yesterday (Saturday morning) for regularising their jobs, locked the Rail Bhaban around 4:30pm today.
They were seen barring officials and staffers from leaving the railway headquarters.
At one point, a team of army men reached there and facilitated holding a meeting between the railway authority and agitators, Tareq said.
Over 1,500 gatekeepers were appointed in 2018 under two projects that Bangladesh Railway (BR) took up to improve safety at level crossings. The gatekeepers had earlier held several protests to regularise their jobs.
As per the announcement, temporary gatekeepers took position at Rail Bhaban around 9:30am to press home their one-point demand of regularising their jobs.