The villagers' forum, Palli Bidyut Unnayan Sangram Parishad (PBUSP), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday afternoon with a high-powered government negotiation committee at Rajshahi Circuit House.

State Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, convenor of the five-member ministerial level committee, and Sangram Parishad Convenor Golam Rabbani signed the agreement, bringing an end to the three-and-a-half-month strife that claimed no less than 17 lives.

Rabbani led a 27-member PBUSP team to negotiate their demands that had resulted in unprecedented mass-agitation against electricity problems and irregularities. Three PBUSP joint convenors -- Golam Arep Tissu, Jahir Choudhury and Joynal Abedin, two lawyers of Rabbani and 22 other PBUSP leaders were the rest of the team members.

While the other members of the government committee were Rajshahi City Mayor and Minister in Charge of Chapainawabganj District Mizanur Rahman Minu, Housing and Public Works State Minister Alamgir Kabir, Food and Disaster Management Deputy Minister Asadul Habib Dulu, and Chapainawabganj-2 Lawmaker Syed Manzur Hossain.

Besides, the Rajshahi divisional commissioner, deputy inspector general of police of Rajshahi range, and Chapainawabganj deputy commissioner and police super were present in the meeting on behalf of the local administration.

However, as the demonstrators were waiting for Rabbani to return from Rajshahi and declare the end of their strike, roadblocks were still there until 9 in the night. So, the activities at Sona Masjid Land Port, some eight kilometres off Kansat, Shibganj upazila, Chapainawabganj district, were yet to resume.

Rabbani and his team returned to Kansat at 9:20pm and held a 7-minute discussion with the waiting PBUSP activists. They decided to remove all roadblocks in the area overnight, and also withdrew the strike.

In the MoU, the government accepted all but one of the 14-point PBUSP demands including withdrawal of electricity metre charge, lowering the minimum power connection charge from Tk 105 to Tk 78, providing compensation for the dead and the injured, and installing a memorial statue to the Kansat victims.

The Parishad leaders did not press for realising their demand of Shahjahan's resignation, as the government negotiators said it was out of their jurisdiction.

"We are happy that the government has accepted all our demands. We'll withdraw our strike today," Rabbani said after the meeting.

He said the Sangram Parishad would not be dissolved, rather, "our fight against injustice, corruption and exploitation will continue."

From the government side, Mayor Minu said, "We didn't have any disagreement during the negotiation," adding all the PBUSP demands would be met within a month.

Participants of the breakthrough talks pointed out that the situation on April 12 in no way called for police firing and assaults on villagers, and raiding, ransacking and looting of houses, killing two people and resulting in the death of an elderly man from heart attack due to fright.

The Daily Star earlier reported that six, not three, people were killed in that police excess, as locals said they saw police torturing Mansur and Sayeem Uddin of Kyathapara and Shahin of Chakkatti and their bodies were missing. They feared the three men were dead, but actually they were arrested and in police custody.

All the Kansat people including women, children and the old rejoiced over the hard-earned triumph of their movement at a victory rally at Rajbari ground. Although they sighed in relief at striking an accord at long last, they came down heavily on the government for the delay, costing so many lives.

After the Parishad had launched the movement on August 8 last year, two villagers were killed on January 4, seven on January 23, five more on April 6 and three on April 12.

As a precondition to yesterday's negotiations, 37 Kansat agitators arrested on charge of killing, violation of section 144 and assaulting police were released from prison. The government also called back police and other law enforcers and withdrew section 144 -- two other conditions set by the Sangram Parishad for holding the peace talks.

The five conditions Rabbani dictated for holding the government-PBUSP dialogue were withdrawal of police, of section 144, and of five cases filed against some PBUSP men, release of the arrested PBUSP members, and resignation of the local BNP lawmaker.

Thirty-two of the 37 arrestees were released in the early hours of Saturday, the police contingents were called back to their camps on Kansat Rural Electrification Board premises and section 144 was cancelled in the afternoon.

At least a hundred Sangram Parisad leaders and activists waited at Godagari in Rajshahi yesterday for the release of the remaining five arrested PBUSP members. After receiving the news of their release, Rabbani started for Rajshahi Circuit House, where he reached at 12:10pm amid tight security.

Although Rabbani on Saturday had told the government side to meet them at Chapainawabganj Circuit House, he later changed the venue to Rajshahi Circuit House. The talks slated for 8am began at 12:35pm in the ground-floor hall of the circuit house.

DEMANDS MET
The government committee yesterday agreed to cancel two categorical meter charges [Tk 10 for 220 volt and Tk 50 for 440 volt], to allow presence of the subscribers during meter reading and not to impose any illegal fines.

The committee reset the monthly connection charge at Tk 78 instead of Tk 105, although the Sangram Parisad demanded it at Tk 72. The charge was Tk 45 in 2003.

The government team agreed to abolish the malpractice of clamping fees and fines on the farmers if any transformer or electric cable went missing.

As per the Parishad's demand, the government agreed to provide the families of the dead Tk 2 lakh each in compensation. It will give Tk 1 lakh to the Parishad activist who suffered an eye injury and Tk 50,000 to each of the 10 severely wounded villagers.

Besides, 100 badly injured Kansat people will get Tk 25,000 each and 600 more wounded Tk 3,000 each on the basis of a report to be prepared by the district civil sergeant, a magistrate and the PBUSP convenor.

The meeting also decided not to charge any fines if any electric connection is taken from a house or institution to the venue of a religious programme or an institution.

The meeting decided to withdraw four cases filed by the police against PBUSP activists immediately, but another case lodged by a BNP man will be settled legally through a concerted initiative.

A total of 160 people have been accused in the five cases. The meeting decided that those who were not arrested would not be nabbed or harassed in the future. The government also agreed not to charge any fines for the bills due since August 8, 2005, when the movement was launched, and that the arrears would be paid in nine instalments.

The two sides also decided to observe January 4 or January 23 as prayer days for the salvation of the dead in the Kansat movement.