Staff Reporter :
Though the Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association has scrapped the ‘waybill’ and ‘checker’ system, there are allegations that most of the transports owners are practicing it.
On the other hand, the busses are not following the revised bus fare and
the conductors are charging additional fare whimsically, which has led to a chaotic situation.
The Association took the decision to scrap the waybill system in a meeting in the capital on Wednesday and it has been effective from that time.
In the name of ‘waybill’ and ‘checker’ system, the bus conductors realise additional fare from the passengers because they did not care the mileage fare system enacted by the government.
This was the regular practice of the transport owners to charge more fare from the passengers if any passenger travel a bit distance ignoring the checking point of the checkers.
As a result, the passengers in a sense pay double fare and it triggers altercations, sometimes fighting, between conductors and passengers over the waybill issue.
The Association’s Genera Secretary Khandkar Enayet Ullah told the media that the decision has been taken following passengers complaints of charging extra fares against some buses in the name of waybills.
“From now there will be no waybills and checkers for buses plying in and around Dhaka city. The buses must stop at designated permit stoppages and the doors of the buses will remain closed between two stoppages,” he added.
But the field reports said that most of the buses in the capital are stopped at the checker points and counting the passengers and writing it down on the waybills and the checkers are taking Tk10 to Tk20 from the conductors for it.
As a result, passengers are enraged with the conductors because they are already overburdened by the recent fare hike by the government due to the fuel price raise.
Apart from this, the buses are not following the fare chart of the government and charging fares whimsically, trigger bickering between passengers and conductors.
Visiting the Mirpur-1 and Mohammadpur bus stands, the passengers alleged that the busses are not following the revised fare rather they are taking fares whimsically.
The passengers said that most of the vehicles did not display revised fare chart and realising additional bus fare as per the conductors’ wills.
The city services like Midway, Ramzan and Taranga Plus run in different routes via Science Lab. The buses are charging Tk20 from Sciece Lab to Matsya Bhaban but the previous fare was Tk10.
From Amin Bazar to Mirpur-1 the previous fare was Tk20 but now it is Tk30 to Tk35.
