Chief adviser's interference sought

Speakers at a meeting yesterday sought the interference of the chief adviser (CA) to protect citizens from the harassment by the transport owners by charging excess bus fares.
The view-exchange meeting with the journalists was organised jointly by Consumers Association of Bangladesh (Cab), Citizen's Rights Movement (CRM) and Nagorik Sanghati (NS) under the banner of Citizens' Rights Protection Movement (CRPM) at the National Press Club in the city.
Leaders of the organisations also urged the government to clarify whether the CNG and diesel-run buses would run under separate policy or under one policy.
The CRPM placed a 13-point demand to the government to reduce the citizens' sufferings in transport sector.
The demands include re-fixing the fares taking the people's demands into account in a just way, and giving more manpower to BRTA so that it could monitor the bus fares set and taken actually.
The speakers accused the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) of not doing much to reduce the public sufferings.
They said the BRTA, with the manpower it has, should monitor on the roads whether or not the government-fixed fares are taken from the passengers.
CRM Vice-president Mohammad Mafizul Haque Sarkar Bir Bikram said there was anarchy in the transport sector in the past and the scenario is also the same now.
“The bus owners are violating the fares that the government has set for them. If somebody does not obey the laws then what is the utility of the state of emergency,” he said.
The government must approach in a planned way to bring the transport sector into order and the citizens should also help the government by forging movement for their rights.
Cab President Borhan Ahmed presided over the meeting which was also addressed by NS President Dr ASM Atiqur Rahman, Cab General Secretary Kazi Faruque and Cab Programme Officer Emdad Hossain Malek.