50 vehicles vandalised
The first day of introduction of ticket system for city buses in Chittagong saw a major hiccup as passengers angry with high fares and inadequate number of buses vandalised around 50 vehicles yesterday.
City bus service stalled for three hours following the incident and regular travellers paid the price. Crowds were seen waiting for transport at ticket counters for hours. Many went to their destinations on foot.
Mir Borkat Hossain, a passenger and an eyewitness to the incident, said people were very angry with high fares for short distances and shortage of buses and human hauliers. The ticket counters were selling tickets for Tk 5 for a distance, which was Tk 2-3 before. During the rush hour, these were too much to endure for the office goers and they went on the rampage.
Tarun Gupto Bhanu, line secretary of City Bus Minibus Human Hauler Owners Association, said around 9:00am passengers attacked a ticket counter at Bahaddarhat intersection and vandalised a bus. He said the rampaging group then moved to Muradpur, Sholoshashar Gate-2 and GEC intersection area. At least 50 transport vehicles were vandalised, he claimed.
Police blamed a group of bus owners for creating an artificial crisis of buses while bus owners blamed the police for randomly fining their vehicles and forcing them to keep their vehicles in the garage.
Traffic Inspector of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Md Shahidullah claimed he has information that some bus owners created the situation on purpose. They took their vehicles off the streets and encouraged others to do so, creating a crisis during rush hour, he said.
Convener of Chittagong District Road Transport Owners’ Group Abul Kalam Azad denied the allegation of creating a transport crisis and blamed passengers for the incident. He said, “Why would bus owners want to instigate passengers in vandalising their own vehicles?”
However, on condition of anonymity a leader of the group said police were also responsible for the incident to some extent. The leader said police fined a large number of vehicles in the last two days which prompted bus owners to keep their vehicles off the streets. He did say that some bus owners also influenced others not to press their buses into service.
Traffic Inspector Shahidullah said during the last two days police just fined those vehicles that were illegally parked.
Chittagong City Corporation Mayor M Manjur Alam inaugurated the ticket system on July 25 but the service began yesterday.
The ticket system for port city buses was first introduced on April 14, 2008, but the system was withdrawn after a few months.
-With The Daily Star input
