THE launch passengers of Barisal-Dhaka route are not getting advance tickets ahead of Eid. Ticket sellers were giving slip as advance booking from June 10 and started issuing tickets from June 16. But some syndicates and black marketeers have already grabbed control over sale of tickets and forcing passengers to pay twice or even more for a ticket exploiting helplessness of the passengers who want to celebrate Eid with families at home.
Media report on Wednesday said passengers, having no other alternatives, are purchasing these slips and have to visit the launch terminals twice — one for collecting slips and then to buy ticket at whatever price the booking agents are demanding. Passengers are helpless when the launch owners association is looking on and law enforcers are working in complicit to crimes apparently sharing benefit of extra money from tickets.
We are really concerned about the exploitation of passengers and their safety during the Eid journey. We would hope that Dhaka Metropolitan Police will effectively monitor the situation at the terminal and the BIWT-run mobile court would play significant role to make the environment at the launch terminal clear and allow people to go home free from hassle. Their safety must be on high on the card. The incidents of launch accidents have diminished but it must not be ignored. There must be enough watch on overloading of passengers and those to be found violating the rules must be immediately punished to stop such violation of rules.
As it appears unbridled corruption and misuse of business rules are making passengers helpless and their exploitation is taking place in public where there is none to ask the question why passengers are to visit terminals more than once to collect tickets. It appears a cruelty that people have been forced to succumb to the arbitrariness of the people controlling the launch terminal. They have been forced to agree to pay as much for a ticket instead of facing more harassment at the terminal. Booking for VIP tickets are also at sale on high cost.
Nearly 0.25 million people travel daily against a capacity of 50,000 by launch to the coastal districts ahead of this Eid festival. The large numbers of people cannot be the hostage of very few who is always cheating with launch passengers creating the artificial scarcity of tickets. We hope BIWT authorities would make people’s journey free from big troubles.
