No end to sufferings
Many buses go off the road amidst BRTA drive
Following the transport regulators drive against sitting and gate lock bus services since last Sunday, a large number of buses are off the road, putting passengers in distress for the last few days. Officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority say their estimate is that around 40 per cent of the buses and minibuses were off the road yesterday (Tuesday).
Talking to The Independent, Nazmul Ahsan Majumder, director (enforcement) of the BRTA, said: Bus owners think the BRTAs drive will eventually end in a few days, and they will be able to run sitting and gate lock services as usual after that. They want to put pressure on the government so that they are allowed to continue with the two services. The drive and mobile courts of the transport regulator will continue. If the bus owners think they can get away by keeping their vehicles off the road for a few days, they are wrong.
He said representatives of bus owners will continue to be with them during the drive.
Admitting scarcity of buses on the road, the secretary general of the Dhaka Road Transport Association (Shorok Poribohon Somiti), Khondoker Enayet Ullah, said buses without fitness and other papers were not operating. Buses and minibuses with illegal angles and bumpers have been off the road since the drive began. This usually happens whenever the BRTA conducts such a drive.
He said the drive will continue and there will be representatives from their association. Buses not on the road will be forced to start plying again.
The Independent spoke to a number of people yesterday. Tousif Ahmed, an employee of a boutique fashion, said commuting from Jigatola to his shop in Banani has become a problem. There were very few buses on the road. As all buses were packed to capacity, I had to take a CNG auto-rickshaw.
Tousif also said with the kind of money he earns, it is not possible to commute in a CNG autorickshaw every day. The government should take immediate steps, he added.
Arafat Nayem, an employee of a commercial bank, said the only change he has observed since Sunday is that more people are crammed inside buses. They charge the same fare. If I pay the fare of a sitting service, but find more people standing inside the bus, then what benefit am I getting from this latest government drive? he wondered. Talking to The Independent, the secretary general of the Bangladesh Jatri Kolyan Somiti (Commuter Welfare Organisation), Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, said violation of rules have become the order of the day in Dhaka. Bus owners and workers are not abiding by the rules.
As a result, commuters are suffering. After the drive started, 40 per cent of the buses have stopped plying, he said. He came up with the estimation after visiting Jatrabari, Mirpur, Uttara, and Tongi areas.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said he saw buses and minibuses parked beside the road, petrol pumps and in open spaces.
He also said the problem is that leaders of transport owners and workers associations are members of almost all transport committees of the government. They are even present in the committee that issues the permit for commuting services. The owners and workers associations are always led by pro-government people, he added.
You have to understand that the owners and workers leaders are backed by political forces. They have immense influence in the transportation committees. That is why the interest of the commuters is not being served, he said.
He further said he was part of the bus-minibus committee in 2015. But he left the committee due to pressure form the owner-worker leaders. The Jatri Kalayan Samiti (JKS) alleged yesterday that 32 transport companies are collecting extra fares from passengers beyond those fixed by the BRTA.
The JKS made the allegation at a press conference in front of the Jatiya Press Club. The press conference was organised to highlight the JKSs findings on the bus fare anarchy despite the official drive to bring an end to it. JKS secretary general Mojammel Huq said during the past two days four of their teams had monitored the situation at various city points. They found that 32 city transport companies were involved in irregularities like charging extra from passengers. Of them, 20 companies were collecting a minimum fare of Tk. 25, six companies Tk. 20 and six others Tk. 10, Huq added.
