Home goers suffer for bus strike

Jarina Begum was very  disturbed as she was stepping down from a luxury air-conditioned coach of Hanif Paribahan at Jhalmalia under Puthia of Rajshahi yesterday.

She and her three daughters were going to Rajshahi from Dhaka when their bus was forced by transport workers to stop at Jhalmalia, some 30 km away from the city. Finding no other vehicle to go to Rajshahi, she hired an auto-rickshaw-van.

“Who cares for our suffering? How can they stop movement of coaches whenever they want?" she asked.

Like Jarina, hundreds of home-bound passengers from Dhaka and other parts of the country had to find alternative vehicles to reach Rajshahi as the transport owners of Rajshahi and Natore districts went on a wildcat strike on Wednesday noon following an internal feud among them.

The feud began when Natore transport owners shut down two counters of Dhaka coaches of National Travels and Desh Travels on Wednesday, and asked Rajshahi bus owners not to let their buses enter Natore before noon every day until Eid day, said Nuruzzaman Pitar, general secretary of Rajshahi Bus Owners' Association.

The bus owners, however, called-off the strike yesterday.

Some local buses are introduced on Dhaka-Rajshahi route ahead of Eid, and their owners make extra profit, disrupting the services of regular Dhaka coaches, he added.

Shakil Hosain of Durgapur in Rajshahi reached Natore by train from Sayedpur at noon. Finding no bus for Rajshahi from Natore, he hired an auto-rickshaw. “I had to unnecessarily spend some extra money for the journey,” he said.

Ahead of Eid, the Rajshahi-Natore highway should be busy with movement of transports. But the highway was almost vacant with stray movement of trucks, private vehicles, human haulers and auto-rickshaws.

“Although three-wheelers are banned on the highway, we are plying considering the sufferings of people,” said an auto-rickshaw-puller.