Auto rickshaw and taxicab drivers are demanding excessive fares from passengers during the Eid holiday.
Drivers argue that due to a rise in daily deposits and an unwillingness of police and owners, they have to charge extra fares from commuters.
Mohammad Anisul Haque, a traveller who reached Kamlapur railway station in Dhaka from Naokhali on Friday, said that he had to pay Tk 200 for an auto-rickshaw to go to Babubazar.
‘The fare is normally Tk 100, but today drivers are even asking for over Tk 250,’ he added.
Another passenger at Kamlapur railway station, Shariful Haque, said the auto-rickshaw drivers asked for Tk 200 to go to Indira Road, when the fare was normally Tk 100 to Tk 120.
This correspondent found that there were about 40 auto-rickshaws in front of the railway station which had no working metres.
Saiful Alam, a Dhanmondi resident, took a taxicab from Shahjanapur to reach Zigatola and paid Tk 250 when the fare was normally Tk 150 to Tk 200.
Dhaka Metropolitan CNG, Auto-Rickshaw and Mishuk Drivers Union general secretary Shakhawat Hossian Dulal told New Age that there should be a tri-party monitoring cell by the representatives of the government, CNG auto-rickshaws’ owners and drivers.
‘If there is such a cell, the owners would collect the government fixed daily deposit from the drivers,’ he said.
He also said that the private auto-rickshaws’ owners were painting their vehicles to earn extra money which have no metres.
‘It is true that drivers are collecting excessive fares from commuters as they are helpless’.
Dhaka Metropolitan Taxicab Drivers Union general secretary, SM Tarek Mahmud also admitted that taxicab drivers were collecting extra fares from commuters.
The owners were taking Tk 1,500 from the taxicab drivers per day which compelled them to collect extra fares, he added.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto Rickshaw Business Owners Association general secretary, Mohammad Faridul Islam Khasru, denied the complaint.
‘We are just collecting the deposit,’ he said, adding ‘If someone says so, please ask him to lodge a complaint against us.’
-With New Age input
