Staff Reporter :
The students protesting for safe roads have rejected a conditional concession on bus fares.
Bus owners on Tuesday announced that they would accept the demand for a 50 per cent discount on bus fares amid protest by students.
But the agitated students announced fresh protests rejecting the proposal of public transport owners.
They took position outside the BRTA office from 1:30pm on Tuesday, and said they would continue to do so until the government issued an official gazette accepting their nine-point charter for demands, which include halving fares for students on all public transports across the country.
The protesters said the government had given students hope and made many promises during the safe road movement in 2018, but none of them were turned into reality.
They asked if the government had thought students outside the capital city were not poor.
On Tuesday morning, Dhaka Road Transport Owners’ Association General Secretary Khandaker Enayet Ullah announced that public transport owners had agreed to allowing half fares from students only in Dhaka city from December 1.
Students would have to show their ID cards to avail the discount and the facility would be available from 7am to 8pm. The student discount would not apply on government and weekly holidays, or during seasonal vacations.
bdnews24.com: The protesters demonstrated outside the BRTA headquarters in Dhaka’s Banani in the afternoon, carrying placards and banners and shouting slogans, said Noor-e-Azam Miah, chief of Banani police.
Three representatives from the group later entered the office for discussion.
“The bus owners association’s stipulations on the fare discount are not reasonable,” said one student. “We do not accept. Many students have to leave home at 6 am by bus. And many can’t get home before nightfall. And there are students all across the country. Students must be allowed to use the 50 percent discount 24 hours a day nationwide.”
Enajamul Haque Ramim, one of the representatives of the protesters, said their discussion with BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder was “unsuccessful”. “We will talk to him again.”
“We reject the half fares announced by the owners. We want half fares not only on buses, but also on launches and trains; and 24/7 across the nation,” he said.
