Jute mill workers continue to block Jogbabi border

Workers of jute mills based in Biratnagar continued to block Nepal-India border point at Jogbani for the third consecutive day on Tuesday. The workers have been staging protest against the closure of jute mills since the past 10 days and demanding they be paid Rs 190 daily wage as fixed by the government and an end to power cuts along the Sunsari-Morang industrial corridor.

The agitating workers are also demanding the government to re-open the Biratnagar Jute Mills, which was closed some three months back.

According to media reports, the eight privately owned mills are reeling under the loss of over Rs 10.7 million daily due to strikes. Similarly, it is reported that various rounds of talks among political parties, trade unions, civil society members and industrialists have failed to resolve the problem.

The agitating workers have warned that they would continue to proceed with their protest program until they get Rs 190 per day as the minimum wage.

On the other hand, the owners of the jute mills have said that the government decision to raise the workers' minimum wage was flippant and insensitive.

They have also ascribed the crippling hours of power outage and the lack of support of the government to facilitate them to export their products like in Indian markets to their failure to raise the minimum wage of workers. nepalnews.com Jan 7 09

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