Commuters face untold sufferings

Staff Reporter :
People of eight districts of Rajshahi Division have become the hostages to the transport strike as the transport owners association has called indefinite strike in the name of realising their 10-point demands.
The transport strike has been called at a time when BNP is going to hold its rally in Rajshahi city on December 3.
The vehicular movement, except microbuses and private cars, was suspended in the city since morning, causing untold sufferings to the people who were seen standing at the bus terminals and roadsides on Thursday.
General people said that whenever BNP has any rally, the transport owners call strike in the name of realising demands to free the highways from three-wheelers, Nosimon and Korimon, but its target is to prevent BNP workers from joining rallies.
Even some of the transport workers preferring anonymity said that such strike did not mean for realising demands, but for preventing BNP. Suspension of vehicular movement causes financial loss, they said.
While the BNP said that they had seen such strikes in their past rallies and it was a ‘mockery’. They said that this strike could not prevent their workers and leaders from joining the rally in Rajshahi city.
Meanwhile, BNP leaders and activists started their journey to reach Rajshahi city and faced hurdles on the way on Wednesday night when the buses carrying them were stopped by the police.
Leaving their vehicles on the highway, the BNP workers from Bogura and Natore reached Rajshahi city on foot covering a long distance.
Rajshahi Divisional Transport Owners’ Association enforced the strike from Thursday morning, following a decision taken at a joint meeting in the office of Rajshahi Road Transport Group on Wednesday.
Now the indefinite strike has been causing immense sufferings for the mass people when many transport workers are also aggrieved for it. Even the state-owned BRTC buses, which become the only means during such a strike to reach destination, are also not plying on the roads without explanation.
All their counters were found closed after a BRTC bus left the Rajshahi Bus Terminal where people were seen waiting for hours to go to their destination.
However, the strike has intensified pressure on trains, the last resort to travel.
General Secretary of Rajshahi Road Transport Group Hoque Titu said that no buses left Rajshahi and entered from other parts of the country amid the ongoing strike.
Outside Rajshahi city, the presence of all types of transports was very thin when people were seen standing by the road in Natore district.
Some commuters were seen running after CNG-run auto-rickshaws and other three-wheelers to reach their destinations.
On the other hand, leaders and activists of BNP started gathering at the Madrasa Field venue in Rajshahi city, after obtaining permission by law enforcers for the rally under eight conditions on Wednesday.
Coordinator of the rally organising committee Ruhul Quddus Dulu said that the party workers would stay at the venue from Thursday and return home after making it a success.
Meanwhile, Bogura BNP said that some 500 leaders and workers left Bogura by buses on Wednesday night. When their transports reached the Kamarpara area in Mohonpur Upzila of Rajshahi, police prevented them at around 2am.
Bogura BNP Organising Secretary SM Morshedul Mithun said, “BNP workers were peacefully heading for Rajshahi from Bogura. But when their vehicles reached the Kamarpara area police stopped them and vandalised the glasses of a vehicle. Even a leader received injury for the incident.”
“Then they were forced to leave the vehicle. Finding no way, BNP workers started walking and reached the venue at around 6:30am after crossing 30 km distance,” he added.
Even the Sirajganj district BNP workers and leaders were forced to leave their buses in the Baneshwar area of Puthia, Rajshahi around 6pm on Wednesday and they started walking and reached the venue at around 1am on Thursday.
“My legs have swollen from walking a long distance. But we will not recede, a BNP activist Sirajul Islam said.
However, police declined the allegations of BNP and said that some of the vehicles did not have proper papers and then those vehicles were stopped.