Shortage of vehicles, long queues of passengers, charging extra fares, no fare chart in the buses, quarrel between passengers and conductors, and some other irregularities were the Tuesday’s scenario on the roads in capital Dhaka.
Visiting different roads in the city it was seen that the commuters yesterday faced tremendous sufferings mainly due to shortage of vehicles belonging to different private sector transport companies.
The city dwellers were seen to wait in long queues for their expected buses in the hot weather. Compare to the days of the last week the number of buses were very thin yesterday. Many of them failed to reach their respective destinations in time.
They (dwellers) blamed the bus owners for creating such a crisis. They alleged that the bus owners have engaged in another game with a view to implementing their ill-motive to loot the people’s money.
Shakil Ahmed, a private service holder, told The New Nation that he was waiting at Tongi bus stand for at least one hour, but did not get any bus for going to Gulistan.
Anayet Chowdhury Ratul, a student of Northern University Bangladesh, said, he failed to reach at the class of the university in time as he had to wait for long to get a bus.
There was no fare chart in any bus on the city roads on Tuesday. The bus drivers and conductors failed to show any fare chart to the passengers.
In absence of the fare chart they were trying to take extra fare from the passengers. As a result, quarrels between passengers and bus operators were the common scenario in every bus. Even sometimes it turned into clashes. Bahalul Ahmed Fahim, a businessman, told this correspondent that the conductor of ‘Welcome’ bus service sought Tk 10 for going to Gulistan from Shahbagh. But the actual fare is Tk 5.
“I asked him to show the fare chart, but he failed to do it. Even, he forced me to give Tk 10. I paid him to escape quarrel,” he said.
Md Rasel, a private service holder, said, the sitting buses turned into local buses, but the fare is unchanged. Sometimes, the bus conductors take more money than the sitting service. The bus owners also did not remove additional seats on the engines.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity yesterday blamed that the bus owners assault the passengers by the hired terror gang. They also alleged that the bus owners were creating artificial crisis following the stoppage of the sitting service.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity Md Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury came up with these remarks at a press conference in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Tuesday.
He said about 40 per cent buses were not operating on the city roads in the last two days. The bus owners want to create anarchy to achieve something.
“The city dwellers, especially women and children, have been facing severe problems due to the scarcity of the vehicles. The bus conductors take extra fares and are reluctant to show fare chart. They also misbehave with the passengers,” Mozammel Hoque said.
Chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai Elias Kanchan said, the government had taken such initiative for several times in the past. But after some days they withdrew their initiative. “I urge the government to continue their drive against extra fare and sitting service,” he said.
The government should cancel the route permit of those bus owners who would create anarchy by not operating their buses on the roads.
On the other hand, Chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) Md Moshiar Rahman reiterated that the route permits of the bus services, which were not running after the authorities banned ‘sitting’ or ‘gate locked’ services in the city, would be cancelled.
Meanwhile, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader in a function at the Secretariat yesterday said that a review meeting on mitigating the crisis in the mass transport sector would be held on Wednesday at 4:00pm at BRTA office in the city.
