Several hundred temporary gatekeepers of level crossings, who are demonstrating from the morning for nationalising their jobs, locked the Rail Bhaban around 4:30pm.
They are barring officials and staffers from leaving the railway headquarters, Tareq Aziz, who said he is an assistant coordinator of the movement, told The Daily Star around 5:10pm.
Bangladesh Railway Director General Sardar Shahadat Ali told this correspondent that they locked all the doors both inside and outside of the Rail Bhaban.
Over 1,500 gatekeepers were appointed in 2018 under two projects that Bangladesh Railway (BR) took up to rehabilitate and improve 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.
Several top officials of BR asked for more time to address the demand, Shahadat Ali said.
However, they demanded that the government issue the order to regularise jobs today.
“We will talk with them again,” he told The Daily Star at 5:15pm.
