Staff Reporter :
Leaseholders are charging extra tolls from the passengers at all the river ports and the ferry ghats exploiting the Eid passengers’ thrust for going homes at any cost, said the Jatri Kalyan Samity.
“The lessee collecting additional amount of Tk 20 to 100 and above from Eid passengers for their bag and baggage forcibly,” Jatri Kalyan Samity secretary General Mozammel Haque Chowdhury in a statement.
He said that violating the contract of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Zila Parishad a massive looting in the name of toll collection continues at all the river ports and ferry ghats across the country before the Eid festival.
“Lessees can take toll from passengers only at Sadarghat during the ferry crossing, according to the contract, but they are not doing it,” the statement read. “It is continuing not only at Sadarghat but also in more than 400 river ports, ferry ghats and crossing points across the country while, the BIWTA lessees are directly involved with this crime,” said it.
Those river ports and ferry ghats have been leased by BIWTA and Zila Parishads.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said, the lessees have appointed local criminals and musclemen for collecting such extra charges. Those musclemen used to snatching passengers goods and fell in to rivers if any one of them disagreed to pay extra money.
Even the passengers become victims to the musclemen of the lessees. “They are collecting money forcibly from the people using the river for purchasing their essential commodities, which is clear violation of the contract,” the statement said.
Jatri Kalyan Samity urged the authority to take emergency actions to eliminate the heinous acts for ensuring passengers safety.
When contacted, Commodore Golam Sadeq, Chairman of the BIWTA told The New Nation on Saturday, “Our teams with the law enforcers including the police and RAB are alert in all river ports to curb such crime.”
He said that the passengers should be more alert and active enough to inform the nearby law enforcers and BIWTA’s surveillance teams in these regards.
The BIWTA Chairman said that their teams including law enforcers would hunt such criminals at every port.
UNB adds: In light of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, the leaseholders of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and District Council (Zila Parishad) have been collecting additional tolls violating the terms of an agreement from more than 400 ghat points of Launch Ghats and river ports, including Sadarghat river port, across the country.
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) secretary general Mozammel Haque Chowdhury raised the allegation in a statement on Saturday, reports UNB.
The secretary general of the BJKS also alleged that besides creating anarchy in collecting additional tolls, leaseholders are also harassing the passengers.
He demanded that immediate steps be taken to stop the collection of such extra tolls.
In the statement, he said extra toll was being levied on passengers going up and down for crossing the river by boat at Sadarghat. If someone is crossing the river by boat carrying daily essentials, the leaseholders employed by BIWTA are illegally extorting them at the rate of 20/30/50/100 taka. However, there is an agreement to collect the fare per passenger crossing the boat.
This ‘looting trade’ is seen not only in Sadarghat but also more than 400 river ports and ghats leased by BIWTA across the country. Besides, such looting is going on at ghats and boat ghat points owned by the district councils in remote areas of different districts of the country, he alleged.
Though the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina repeatedly gave instructions to stop the harassment of passengers on the waterways, neither the Ministry of Shipping nor the BIWTA has taken any effective steps to stop the anarchy. Passengers are being harassed if they protest against such extra toll collection.
As a result of the leaseholders giving responsibility to the unruly youths of the area for collecting tolls at these ghats, many passengers have to cross rivers and ghats with extra tolls and illegal tolls as per their demand. The helpless passengers are seen expressing their anger against the government in various ways.
Mozammel Haque Chodhury demanded that the Ministry of Shipping, Department of Consumer Protection and Department of Maritime Transport take necessary steps to get rid of this situation.
