<i>Caught in transport fare maze</i>
Farzana Aman, a student of Chittagong College, was trying to get on a city bus at Chawk Bazar but she stopped as the bus helper began screaming that Tk 5 was the “minimum fare”.
She was bound for her college, only a quarter kilometre away from Chawk Bazar intersection.
Farzana looked helplessly at the helper but he seemed indifferent and simply kept up the refrain about the minimum fare.
As an alternative, she approached a rickshaw only to be met with another round of disappointment. The rickshaw puller asked for fare she was unable to afford.
“If the bus fare for a quarter kilometre can be Tk 5, why do you think the rickshaw fare of Tk 15 for the same distance is illogical?,” the rickshaw-puller, Yasin, argued.
Daughter of a schoolteacher, she gets Tk 20 a day as pocket money from her family.
“Owners and staff of buses and other passenger vehicles raise fares unreasonably every time the fuel prices are increased”, Farzana said as started walking towards her college.
Like Farzana, many more students in the port city are suffering every day during commuting due to excessive increases in transport fares. The students who use public transports mostly belong to middle and lower income families and are unable to cope with the rising fares.
Tonmoy, a student at Chittagong Govt Commerce College, said, “The minimum fare for the city bus was Tk 3 before the increase of fuel prices last time. But the bus staff are charging Tk 5 as minimum fare arbitrarily since the fuel price hike.”
He noted that it was mainly students and commuters from middle and lower income families who suffered. He demanded that transport fares be halved for students.
There have been several altercations at different spots of the city over the excessive fare hike, and angry passengers have even vandalised a few vehicles. In retaliation, the bus owners called a strike in the city on October 10.
SM Nazer Hossain, president, Consumers' Association of Bangladesh's (CAB), Chittagong unit, said, “The government monitoring agencies remain silent over the arbitrary increase in bus fare by the owners. At some places, we have seen police favouring bus staff when they forced reluctant passengers into paying illogical fares”.
“No representatives from among the commuters are called to the meetings held to fix fares, and the meetings are simply dominated by the bus owners”, he said.
Transport owners denied that they increased fares arbitrarily. “We are taking bus fare as per the direction of the government. The government has fixed the minimum fare for city buses at Tk 5”, Tarun Dasgupta, secretary of Chittagong Bus, Minibus and Human Haulers Owners' Association, said.
Mohammad Shahidullah, assistant commissioner, Chittagong Metropolitan Police (Traffic), said, “Police are watching whether the bus staff charge passengers beyond the government-fixed fare. We just let the bus staff realise the fare that is fixed by the government, as we are held responsible for their security on the roads”.
Prof Dr Sikander Khan, vice-chancellor, East Delta University, said, “The government should halve the fare of public transports for students as they get a fixed amount of pocket money from their families, and most of them are from middle and lower income families.”
“But the students must carry and show valid identity cards issued by the head of the respective institutions while enjoying the facilities”, he added.
Chittagong city Mayor Manjur Alam said, “If the government takes the decision of fixing bus fare at half of the regular fares for students throughout the country, I will take initiatives to implement it in the port city”.
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