Call off hartal:Daily Star

The FBCCI and the MCCI, two leading trade bodies in the country, have opposed today's nationwide hartal called by the BNP-led alliance, for such programmes disrupt the economy and business activities.  In a statement issued yesterday, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry urged the opposition alliance to call it off for the sake of political stability and development. The
BNP-led 20-party alliance called the countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal in protest at the government's refusal to allow the party to hold a rally in Gazipur on Saturday and the arrest of a number of its political leaders. "The day-to-day movement of common people, the production and the supply chain will be seriously disrupted," said the apex trade body. The economy has overcome the impacts of the political disturbances in the run up to the January 5 parliamentary election this year, and a progress is being reflected now in all economic indicators, it said.   “At this juncture, the strike will hamper the economic progress.” The business community will take to the streets, if any chaos is created in the name of political programmes, says the FBCCI statement.  Advertisement Political problems cannot be solved by creating chaos, it says, adding that destructive programmes like strikes would only ruin the economy. The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka said it had always been against all sorts of strikes. Farooq Ahmed, secretary general of the MCCI, urged the political parties to find out alternatives to strikes, since such programmes harm the economy and businesses to a large extent.