NEWS reports on Saturday said transport workers barricaded the movement of buses and other passenger vehicles through the 1st Buriganga Bridge from the morning for several hours to protest the sudden rise in toll rates which soared up 25 times in some cases. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) clapped the new rates at peak Eid holiday time when thousands of buses remained stuck up on highways in long traffic gridlock and reports of tragic accidents are pouring in the media showing a kind of highway mass killing of people everyday from dilapidated road condition and hectic driving by overworked transport workers. The new move by the RHD at this peak time led transport workers to angry protest and put barricade on the bridge. They stopped plying of vehicles demanding the withdrawal of enhanced tolls. It immediately led hundreds of buses on the Keranigonj end of the bridge to fall in long queues half way from Mawa point. Most passengers passed agonizing time and others walked over the bridge carrying babies and luggages on their shoulder.
The blockade continued until in the afternoon when the RHD officials withdrew the enhanced rates temporarily. Needles to say, the RHD moves was a highly scandalous one at peak Eid vacation time. It appears that they wanted to take the transport workers and passengers hostage to the unholy move when everyone is in haste to reach the destination. There is no doubt, such decision is totally devoid of any commonsense and even in part criminal, least one does not question the justification of it without consultation with transport operators and others using this city exit point. An autorickshaw driver claimed under the new rate he should pay Tk 25 for a single trip as against Tk 10 at the moment. A microbus would have to pay Tk 75 from Tk 20 and a bus to pay Tk 150 from Tk 100 now.
Here the question is not about the rates only; it is about the bureaucratic outlook of government officials in public matter. Many wonder why the government officials take people as fool and try to treat them accordingly. The most important thing is that people are highly sensitive now and as the barricade on the bridge shows they made their voice heard forcing the government to withdraw the enhanced toll rates. The issue is that if they had consulted the stakeholders, the chaos at the bridge head and the accompanied suffering of the people on highway could be avoided. Our bureaucracy is yet to learn it.
The most interesting point is that the 2nd Buriganga Bridge which was built with Chinese grant much later is now toll free from last year. Why the RHD is not making the 1st one toll free is the big question. There may be also a question whether any vested interest quarter is having a hand behind it to continue to exploit the bridge indefinitely.
Road tax is payable for using roads. Collection of additional money as toll for use of a bridge is justified for defraying extra cost of the bridge. The users are asked to pay toll for using highway also. But toll collection should not be a way of making more and more money for the benefit of those who are given contracts for collecting toll as business. There has to be some rational explanation for extra expenses on the people.
The fact is that the government does not feel the need of being reasonable in public conduct.
