BNP's National Executive Committee's Student Affairs Secretary Rakibul Islam Bakul addressed the workers during a visit to the workplace of the Jute Press workers in Khulna. Photo: BSS

KHULNA, June 26, 2025 (BSS) - BNP's National Executive Committee's Student Affairs Secretary Rakibul Islam Bakul has said if BNP comes to power through people's mandate, all closed mills and factories will reopen highlighting his party's role in securing the rights of workers. 

He made the remarks while addressing workers during a visit to the workplace of the Jute Press workers near the Railway Gate in Daulatpur in the city on Wednesday afternoon.

Bakul, also BNP’s nomination aspirant from Khulna-3 constituency, stated that due to looting by the fallen regime led by Sheikh Hasina and her associates, all the mills and factories in the Khulna region have been shut down.

He pledged that if BNP assumes power through votes, the workers would be freed from unemployment.

Bakul said during the last 16 years, the fascist Sheikh Hasina government has done nothing for the workers as she did not take any initiative to improve the living standards of workers or ensure any basic benefits. 

Even the minimum wage was not ensured by the fallen Awami League's authoritarian government, he said.

The BNP leader said when BNP was in power; it reformed labour laws, formed salary and wage commissions, set minimum wages for garment workers, and introduced a bonus system. 

It also established a labour welfare foundation and initiated special programs for workers' children's education and healthcare, he said.

Turning to BNP's 31-point outline initiated by Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, Bakul said his party is committed to formulating and implementing appropriate laws and policies to safeguard the basic rights, dignity, and living standards of industrial workers, garment workers, agricultural laborers, construction workers, transport workers, tea workers, rickshaw-pullers, day laborers, and domestic workers.

 He also added that a minimum wage structure will be ensured to provide a dignified life of the workers.

Khulna BNP leaders Sheikh Sadi, Chowdhury Shafiqul Islam Hossain, Murshid Kamal, Sheikh Imam Hossain, Riaz, Shahed, Humayun Kabir, Sirajul Islam Soni, Enayet Hossain, Kamal Hawlader, Suzzal Hossain Sujon, Hossain Badiuzzaman, Jamal, Dalim Kazi, Bellal Munshi, and Md Milon Hawlader, among others, were present.