Petition seeks stay on hiking bus fare
A rights organisation yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the government's decision to increase the bus fares by 60 percent.
Law and Life Foundation submitted the writ petition as public interest litigation to the HC through email seeking a stay on the gazette notification issued by the government hiking bus fares.
The HC may virtually hold a hearing on the petition today, Barrister Humayun Kabir Pallob, chairman of Law and Life Foundation, told The Daily Star.
Citing the petition, the lawyer said the middle and low middle class people mostly use bus and minibus for transport.
They cannot bear the earlier scheduled fares properly, let alone the increased ones, he said, adding that they are facing a serious financial crisis due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Humayun Kabir Pallob said the decision to increase bus fares is contradictory to the fundamental rights of the people and also illegal.
The government on Sunday issued a gazette notification increasing fares of all buses, including the inter-district ones, by 60 percent as the vehicles are allowed to carry half passengers of the total seats to maintain physical distance amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
The gazette notification said the fares of buses and minibuses on long routes will be increased by 60 percent on the existing rate (Tk 1.42 per kilometre).
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