Homebound passengers being overcharged
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity yesterday alleged that additional fares are being charged from Eid holidaymakers bound for different districts by road, water and airways.
Fares are illegally being charged two or three times higher than usual, in routes including Feni, Cumilla, Noakhali and in northern parts of the country, claimed the passengers’ welfare platform.
From a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, the platform also made a 12-point recommendation to ensure safe journey for passengers for Eid-ul-Azha, to be observed tomorrow.
In a written statement there, the platform’s secretary General Mozammel Hoque alleged that homegoers are paying extra fares on one hand, and remaining stuck for hours in jam on highways, as well as at rail stations due to schedule collapse.
Quieting statistics of the Roads and Highways Department, he said 4,247km of roads and highways and 300km of railways in the country are in poor condition due to un-repaired roads and risky bridges.
Waterways have become extremely risky due to unfavorable weather and the burden of carrying about three to four times extra passengers beyond capacity, he said.
Mozammel demanded that the government repair highways affected by flood, and introduce long-term measures to deal with the crisis of public transport.
Mozammel recommended imposing a ban on vehicles without fitness like “nosimon-korimon” (locally-produced three-wheelers), easy-bikes, auto-rickshaws, battery and pedal-run rickshaws, and restricting motorcycles on major highways. The platform’s other recommendations include stopping overcharge of fares and black market ticket sales, stopping extortion from cattle-carrying vehicles during Eid, eviction of temporary cattle markets adjacent to roads and highways, activation of all booths in toll plazas across the country’s highways, taking initiative for quick movement of vehicles in areas prone to traffic jam, eviction of hawkers from footpaths to ensure walking space for pedestrians, use of speed guns while monitoring vehicles using the wrong lane, and stopping overloading of passengers in vehicle.
Among others, chief coordinator of Ganasanghati Andolan Zonayed Saki, and Sharifuzzaman Sharif, general secretary of citizens’ body Nagorik Samhati also spoke at the press conference.
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