Ruling party leaders accelerate commuter sufferings

The transport owners association had announced that passengers would no longer have to wait inordinately for buses and mini-buses and also that fares would decrease. The owners, however, are backtracking on their word and commuters all over the capital city are suffering.

Activists for commuter rights said that along with the transport owners and workers association, influential leaders and supporters of the ruling party are also responsible for this predicament of the passengers.

State minister for rural development and cooperatives Mashiur Rahman and Dhaka city (south) Awami League leader Khandakar Enayet Ullah are leaders of the transport owners association.

And shipping minister Shahjahan Khan is the executive president of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation. His family owns the Kanak bus service which operates in Dhaka.

On 4 April the owners association decided to stop the ‘seating service’ of buses and this came into effect on 15 April.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) took to the streets with mobile courts to ensure that this decision was implemented. BRTA apparently was not prepared for the task.

Once they began the drive, many owners simply withdrew their buses and minibuses from the streets. Passengers in overcrowded buses were forced to pay the special fare for ‘seating service’.

Four days later, on Tuesday, road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader spoke to reporters at the secretariat, admitting his helplessness in addressing the sufferings of the public transport passengers.

“Given the ground reality, if anyone refuses to take out his bus on some flimsy excuse, what can I do about it? Those involved in this transport sector are no ordinary people. They are extremely powerful,” said Quader, also general secretary of the ruling Awami League.

He said that a meeting would be held on Wednesday to review the situation.

BRTA sources said that a meeting would be held with leaders of the owner and workers association as well as representatives of civil society on Wednesday afternoon. After that, a meeting would be held with the owners of various bus and mini-bus companies.

In the past, too, the owner and worker associations had called for strikes to implement their demands, causing immense sufferings to the commuters.

In February when the court sentenced bus driver Zamir Hossain to life imprisonment for the death of filmmaker Tarek Masud, journalist Mishuk Munier and three others, the bus owners and workers associations met at the shipping minister’s residence where they called for a strike, brining the entire country to a standstill.

Certain officials of the road transport ministry and passenger rights activists have said the main motive behind stopping ‘seating service’ was to increase bus fare. With a few exceptions, buses were being overcrowded with passengers who were charged the higher fare of ‘seating service’.

Influential leaders of the ruling party are involved in the matter and BRTA finds itself in a fix.

General secretary of Dhaka Road Transport Association Khandakar Enayet Ullah told Prothom Alo, “We stopped the ‘seating service’ in consideration of the passengers. It will all smoothen out within a few days.”

On the other hand, secretary general of the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association Mozammel Huq Chowdhury said that the transport owners did as they wish when they wish.

He told Prothom Alo that they had said ‘seating service’ would be stopped so as to decrease fares, but fares hadn’t been revised downwardly. There were even instances of passengers being beaten up and forced out of the buses.

He said, the government and the media will make a noise for a few days and then fall silent. The passengers will have no choice but to surrender. The owners are well aware of this.

Source: Prothom Alo