Stone extraction at Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited in Dinajpur, the country's only underground stone mine, has been suspended indefinitely.
The mining contractor Germania Trust Consortium (GTC) and Germania Corporation Limited (GCL) have announced the suspension of stone extraction through a notice due to security concerns due to ongoing worker unrest in the mine and fears of sabotage activities.
The notice signed by Major (Retd) Ruhul Amin, Chief of Security and Workers Welfare of GTC, states that some workers are forcibly preventing other general workers from joining work by raising unjust and unreasonable demands. They are participating in illegal strikes underground and inside the mine. Due to this, foreign experts working in the mine are suffering from insecurity. They are afraid of damage to mining equipment and installations. Although various efforts have been made at the administrative level to calm the situation, a section of the workers have refused to follow the instructions of the authorities. At the same time, they are creating fears of misbehavior and sabotage with the officials. Therefore, it is not possible to conduct mining activities.
The notice further states that during the closure period, no worker or employee will receive salary, allowance or other benefits as per the provisions of Section 13 (1) of the Bangladesh Labor Act. However, the notice also instructs workers and employees responsible for urgent office activities and maintenance to join work on time as per the prescribed duty roster.
In this regard, Managing Director of Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited, Engineer DM Jobayed Hossain, told this reporter on Friday afternoon over the phone that the contractor company Germania Trust Consortium-GTC is responsible for extracting the stone from the mine. The mine workers engaged in the stone extraction work under them. The contractor company GTC has informed the mine authorities about the temporary suspension of stone extraction due to worker dissatisfaction. He said that the mine authorities will deliver the stone to the contractor company as per the agreement. If the stone extraction is stopped for a few days, they will compensate it later. He also said that the contractor company has extracted the stone satisfactorily as per the agreement, and currently there is about 1.2 million metric tons of stone in the mine yard.
Meanwhile, the contractor GTC recently dismissed mining foreman Shafiqul Islam, long drill operator Rafiqul Islam, operator Omar Ali and junior helper Hasan Ali from their jobs on charges of breach of discipline. More than 800 workers of the mine have been on strike since last Wednesday (July 2) demanding the reinstatement of these four miners. As a result, quarrying has been suspended for three days. During this time, the workers also demanded production bonuses.
However, an official of the contracting company GTC said that the miners are working on a temporary and contract basis. There is no rule for giving production bonuses to miners. Even then, if more than 110,000 tons of stone are extracted every month, the workers are given production bonuses to encourage them. Which was given till last May and there is no balance. In addition, GTC has been doing various welfare works for the workers, including free medical services, providing various scholarships to the children of the workers.
It is mentioned that the Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited (MGMCL) of Dinajpur started its commercial journey on May 25, 2007 as the only stone mine in the country. Initially, 1500 to 1800 tons of stone were extracted from the mine daily, but later it came down to only 500 tons. As a result, the mine suffered losses of over 100 crore taka from the time it went into production until June 2013. In such a situation, in order to increase the production of the mine, in February 2014, the responsibility of production and maintenance of the mine was given to the Belarusian contracting company Germania Trust Consortium-GTC under a contract to extract 9.2 million metric tons of stone. GTC started working in three shifts with more than 200 foreign mining experts and domestic engineers, more than 800 skilled mining workers and more than 200 officials for the development and production of the mine. Since then, the mine has been profitable. Along with the increase in stone reserves, Madhyapara mine stones have also started being supplied to institutions according to demand. In order to continue to show the government's profit in stone extraction, in September 2021, the authorities of Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited (Madhyapara Stone Mine) renewed the contract with the contracting company GTC for a second period of six years to extract 8.86 million metric tons of stone.
