Special Correspondent :
A 48-hour strike called by the transport workers has wrecked havoc in the city and the country’s transport system sending hundreds of thousands of commuters into untold sufferings.
They (commuters) had to look for alternative mode of transportation as the workers walked off the job on Sunday to press home their eight-point demand, including amendments to the recently passed Road Transport Act-2018.
In Dhaka, buses and minibuses, except government-run BRTC buses and auto-rickshaws, did not ply in the streets plunging the city dwellers, especially office-goers and students, into immense sufferings.
Rickshaws were seen dominating city streets and charging extra fare. Many commuters were seen walking to their destinations.
Sufferings of inter-district passengers were beyond description. They waited with bag and baggage for buses at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminals as the strike affected the inter-district transport services as well.
The transport workers were also seen obstructing even private cars and vehicles offering ride-sharing services like Uber and Pathao at various points in the city causing serious discontent among the commuters who rely on these services to go to their work place.
Some transport workers even harassed drivers of cars, microbus and motorbikes during the strike hours by pouring used Mobil oil and black paint in their face, forehead and vehicles. Even ambulances were not spared. Drivers and motorists faced this situation in the capital’s Jatrabari area.
When asked, transport workers and leaders blamed a ‘vested quarter’ behind misbehaving with passengers and drivers as an attempt to sabotage the peaceful movement.
“Our 48-hour work abstention started around 6:00am today. No inter-district buses left the city’s bus terminals this morning,” Osmani Ali, General Secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, an umbrella organisation of the country’s transport workers, told The New Nation yesterday.
Around 70 lakh workers of all motorised-vehicles, including buses, trucks, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, and human hauliers, are the members of the federation.
When asked, Osmani Ali said, “We are conscious of the sufferings of the people. In fact, we don’t want to make their life paralysed, but we feel we have no option.”
But commuters sharply reacted to the strike saying it is completely unjust.
“The strike caused huge inconvenience to the city dwellers. The Road Transport Workers Federation has made us hostage by calling the illegal strike. They should be punished,” an angry commuter told The New Nation.
Many passengers also vented their frustration with the situation through social media terming the strike illegal.
