Editorial
Passengers' woes mounting
CNG strike needs to end
With the strike called by CNG drivers commuters are suffering the full brunt of the lack of this fleet of public carrier in the city. Dhaka is one of the few mega-cities in the world that lacks a proper network of public transportation and a practically non-existent taxi fleet. The private bus operators continue to field mini-buses will little headroom and dreadful seating capacity form the backbone of the city commuting. Government run BRTC has recently inducted some modern buses into its fleet, but these are too few in number to cater to a population of some 15 million inhabitants of Dhaka city.
The indefinite strike however cannot be supported for a variety of reasons. How does one justify the demand made for canceling requirement for route permits? Every commercial vehicle regardless of size has specific route permits, so why should it be different for three-wheelers. One may easily ask why drivers refuse to ply the roads on the recalibrated digital meters recently installed as per government decision. Again, one may enquire as to why the bulk of these vehicles refuse to travel to destinations of commuters' choices.
Indeed, this culture of refusing to abide by government regulations on the question of traveling and charging as per meter has become a common phenomenon with all taxi services. The most common answer for refusing to go to a particular destination or extorting undue amounts from hapless commuters is due to lax enforcement by the police. Again when enforcers try to enforce the law, it is the commuter that must pay the price when a particular service is taken offline through a strike. It is time to take some tough decisions for authorities to address this issue head on. A dialogue needs to be initiated immediately with the unions but relevant authorities must show a zero tolerance to law breakers. Only when errant drivers find themselves confronted by a system that cannot be bought off will city dwellers' traveling woes lessen.
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