Bus passengers made to pay extra fare
Many bus operators continued realising extra fare from passengers yesterday, a day after the communications minister warned that route permit of the errant bus operators would be cancelled.
Seven mobile courts of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and several teams of Dhaka Metropolitan Police caught a number of buses in the city for charging passengers extra fare yesterday.
They fined some buses and dumped several others although the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983 has provisions to cancel route permit of the buses and imprison their owners for not following government-fixed fare.
During the drives, the police teams filed a total of 91 cases against different bus services for not displaying government-approved fare chart and charging extra fare. They also seized eight buses.
The mobile courts realised Tk 32,000 in fine from errant bus services. They also recommended the Regional Transport Committee (RTC) for cancelling route permit of five bus operators.
A magistrate of a mobile court said that they would strictly implement the ordinance from next week. “The authorities can not take tough action against the errant bus services and their owners fearing transport strike,” said the magistrate.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Samity (DSPS), the largest body of private transport owners in the city, said that no bus service would take extra fare from today.
Speaking at a press briefing in the city, Secretary General of DSPS Khondokar Enayet Ullah admitted that some bus operators are charging extra fare. He also urged the government to take actions against the errant bus owners as per the ordinance.
Owners belonged to the Samity also held a meeting yesterday and agreed to display the new fare chart in each bus counter and not to use old ticket books from today. They also decided not to operate any direct or seating service buses.
“We have formed four monitoring teams who will be deployed on different city routes to check whether the government-approved fare chart is being followed,” said Enayet.
Meanwhile, a good number of private buses and minibuses remained out of the city roads yesterday to avoid the government drives.
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