A RECENT report in a Bengali Daily disclosed the presence of an axis of evil which dominates the city transport sector. It said quite a good number of ministers, members of parliament and ruling party leaders are using unfair controls over the city transportation system and in doing so they are holding back the implementation of the Strategic Transport Plan for the city which was approved in 2008. The report said the lobby is so strong that nothing can escape from their control. In the first place, the disclosure said, one has to be affiliated with the ruling party to get a route permit to operate transports in the city streets. The permit seekers would have to pay heavily and those who can buy the best favour can get permits on the roads of their choice which have high traffic demand. On the other hand, very few non-partisan investors have the chance to succeed in obtaining new permits. It is almost a ruling party monopoly now in terms of rent seeking and controlling the city transport system. The news report said at least 42 companies are now operating buses on Mirpur-Pallabi roads connecting the city centers at Motijheel while transport buses linking the East-West or Uttara-Motijheel points are quite few in number.
Moreover as the news report said, most of the government imported 900 buses in the recent past are run by politically influential lobbies through a system of lease taking. In most cases, BRTC personnel are instrumental in taking the lease while the party men operate under their cover. We see there is something fundamentally wrong in the system; otherwise why BRTC imported buses- both double deckers and luxury ones–should be run by private persons depriving the nation of its benefits. Even BRTC now routinely gives its buses for rent to government and semi-government organizations like Bangladesh Secretariat, Water Development Board or Dhaka University to transport students and employees instead of transporting passengers on the roads. In the process, some people in these organizations are reportedly making hefty amounts of illegal money in under hand deals while city commuters remained largely captive in the hand of private transport companies charging exorbitant fares.
It appears that the political lobbies which are highly corrupt and greedy are not only dominating the city transport system, but also destroying the state run BRTC exploiting its resources. They are moreover destroying the competitiveness in the transport sector that the BRTC buses could offer in the city and throughout the country. The question is then why BRTC should import buses at a cost to the state exchequer to lease them to private operators. It is equivalent to swindling of public money and its assets to fatten the party men in one hand while consciously holding back the implementation of the city strategic transport plan to facilitate business to those operators on the other. We hold the view that the cartel must be wiped out quickly to free the city commuters from greedy businessmen and politicians who are holding the system hostage. We also demand immediate steps to implement the strategic transport plan for the city to push forward its modernization.
