Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh Passenger’s Welfare Society, an organization that deals with country’s public transport, has alleged that the proposed transport law would not protect the rights of general passengers; instead, it will defend transport owners and workers.
“The stakeholders of the transport sector are government, passengers, owners and workers. For the last many years, there had been no passengers’ representative in the decision making forums. Even there was no organization to address the issues of public sufferings on the roads, irrational transport fare, passengers’ harassment and etcetera. Keeping similarity with the old tradition, no passenger’s representative has been kept in the decision making forums in the proposed transport law,” Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, the society’s general secretary, said.
Registering their protest, the organization already submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office on April 4 demanding necessary amendment to the law.
On 27 March, the Cabinet approved the draft of the Road Transport Act, which mentioned that one needs to pass eighth grade to be a driver and fifth grade for being his assistant.
Besides, a conductor having good manners would be at least 18 years old to get the licence. Sections 13, 14 and 15 of the Act deal with licencing provisions. Literacy and numeracy have been referred as qualifying condition to get licence for a conductor in the proposed Act as well.
Referring to the issue, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said: “Although the government earlier included representative of Jatri Kalyan Samity in different forums, including fare fixing committees of bus, CNG run-auto rickshaw, taxicab, inter-ministerial Eid management, Dhaka Metro RTC and Chatra Metro RTC , they failed to play the desired role due to severe pressure from the transport owners and worker leaders.”
Even there is a provision to keep passenger’s representatives in the national road safety council and road transport advisory council. But it could not be implemented till the date due to influence of owners and workers.
“Significantly, in the new proposed law, there is no representative from passengers, except representatives of owners and workers. And so, in the proposed law, the passengers’ interest has been ignored severely,” he said.
In the written speech, he further said that it was urged for the government to include representatives [of passengers, workers, owners and government] in a proportional way. But their demand was also not reflected in the proposed law, which has been cleared by the Cabinet.
At present, there is practically “no system” in the road transport sector where the owners of the buses not only charge extra, but also violate rule by employing children and young people as conductors.
Besides, the passengers are forced to pay extra fare in the name of so-called, “sitting service”. Most of the bus owners ignore the specified fare and follow their self-devised system to collect the extra fare.
There is widespread allegation that, the owners tend to ignore directives made by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority due to their political affiliation. Naming their services as “seating-service”, “gate-lock”, “non-stop”, “time-controlled”, “speedy service” and “counter service”, operators charge the passengers high fare from the passengers.
Bangladesh Passenger’s Welfare Society, an organization that deals with country’s public transport, has alleged that the proposed transport law would not protect the rights of general passengers; instead, it will defend transport owners and workers.
“The stakeholders of the transport sector are government, passengers, owners and workers. For the last many years, there had been no passengers’ representative in the decision making forums. Even there was no organization to address the issues of public sufferings on the roads, irrational transport fare, passengers’ harassment and etcetera. Keeping similarity with the old tradition, no passenger’s representative has been kept in the decision making forums in the proposed transport law,” Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, the society’s general secretary, said.
Registering their protest, the organization already submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office on April 4 demanding necessary amendment to the law.
On 27 March, the Cabinet approved the draft of the Road Transport Act, which mentioned that one needs to pass eighth grade to be a driver and fifth grade for being his assistant.
Besides, a conductor having good manners would be at least 18 years old to get the licence. Sections 13, 14 and 15 of the Act deal with licencing provisions. Literacy and numeracy have been referred as qualifying condition to get licence for a conductor in the proposed Act as well.
Referring to the issue, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said: “Although the government earlier included representative of Jatri Kalyan Samity in different forums, including fare fixing committees of bus, CNG run-auto rickshaw, taxicab, inter-ministerial Eid management, Dhaka Metro RTC and Chatra Metro RTC , they failed to play the desired role due to severe pressure from the transport owners and worker leaders.”
Even there is a provision to keep passenger’s representatives in the national road safety council and road transport advisory council. But it could not be implemented till the date due to influence of owners and workers.
“Significantly, in the new proposed law, there is no representative from passengers, except representatives of owners and workers. And so, in the proposed law, the passengers’ interest has been ignored severely,” he said.
In the written speech, he further said that it was urged for the government to include representatives [of passengers, workers, owners and government] in a proportional way. But their demand was also not reflected in the proposed law, which has been cleared by the Cabinet.
At present, there is practically “no system” in the road transport sector where the owners of the buses not only charge extra, but also violate rule by employing children and young people as conductors.
Besides, the passengers are forced to pay extra fare in the name of so-called, “sitting service”. Most of the bus owners ignore the specified fare and follow their self-devised system to collect the extra fare.
There is widespread allegation that, the owners tend to ignore directives made by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority due to their political affiliation. Naming their services as “seating-service”, “gate-lock”, “non-stop”, “time-controlled”, “speedy service” and “counter service”, operators charge the passengers high fare from the passengers.
