Abu Sazzad :
As the increased bus fare came into effect on Thursday in capital Dhaka and Chittagong, scuffle, altercation and even clashes between the transport workers and passengers took places on all most all routes. As passengers got into altercations with the transports workers over the issue of increased bus fares, at one stage these verbal altercations yesterday turned into petty clashes as well.
The government has increased the fares of bus and CNG-run auto-rickshaws in Dhaka and Chittagong cities following the recent gas price hike. However, the minimum bus and minibus fares remained unchanged at Tk 7 and Tk 5 respectively.
City commuters yesterday expressed their grave concern over the increased bus fare, saying when they are facing serious financial hardship the increased bus fare is adding salt into wounds.
However, the transport workers said as the government hiked the gas price they do not have anything to do regarding the issue.
“If we don’t charge increased fare it is very difficult to run our transport business. It is very simple nobody wants to run his business by giving loss,” a driver of Mirpur area said.
While this correspondent traveling city service on Thursday found a good number of passengers in the city involved fighting with the bus conductors for the extra charges.
Passengers have been forced to pay additional charges from Tk 5 to Tk 8 on different routes in the city. It is surprising that most of the buses have no prescribed fare chart by the authority.
Actually, the government has increased the bus and auto-rickshaw fares in Dhaka and Chittagong recently. The new bus fare is effecting from Thursday. The bus fare has been raised to Tk 1.70 per kilometer from Tk 1.60 and the minimum fares have been kept at Tk 7 in the city as per the decision of the government.
“I used to pay Tk 12-15 for traveling from Jatrabari to Farmgate through a local bus but the bus conductor is charging Tk 20 for the same route, said a private jobholder yesterday.
Another passenger said, I usually paid Tk 24 for traveling from Mirpur to Motijheel by a sitting bus popularly known as Bikolpo or Haji, but now I am paying Tk29.
Another passenger said, “I used to pay Tk 5 in local bus service for traveling from Paltan to Farmgate. But now they are charging Tk 10.”
Another passenger who travels from Rampura to Gulistan regularly said most of the bus staff on this route is often charging Tk 12 instead of existing Tk 7-8.
“If anyone protests against it, the bus staff become aggressive and asks us to leave. As there is huge shortage of public transport in Dhaka city, we are compelled to pay additional fare” said the passenger.
According to the bus operators in the capital, they are charging additional fare due to gas price hike in the recent time. They would not increase the fare until the government decided about it.
A good number of bus passengers in the city urged the government to reduce the fare for the betterment of low and middle class people. “It is very much burden for us to afford the new bus fare”, said the passengers.
