In the name of sitting service, the majority of the city bus operators continue to overcharge passengers even if the government hiked bus fares by 30 percent this May.
Sitting service, which “ensures that all passengers travel seated”, is not approved by the government and is adding to the suffering of the city dwellers.
“Take away everything”, shouted Hakim Morol, a traveller, showing his wallet open. He boarded a Gulistan-bound bus from Karwan Bazar for Shahbagh.
“The distance will be a maximum of 2km. But I have to pay Tk 8. My salary doesn’t rise, but the fare has shot up more than two times. How do we live in the city?” Hakim asked.
On May 19, the government raised bus fare to Tk 1.55 from Tk 1.20 and mini-bus fare to Tk 1.45 from Tk 1.10 for a distance of one kilometre. The minimum fare was fixed at Tk 7 from Tk 5.
Following the new rate fixation, Labbayek, a bus service operating on Jatrabari-Savar route, increased fare to Tk 15 from Tk 10 for the distance between Malibagh and Farmgate. The distance is only 3.61km (according to Google Earth), for which the new rate should stand at Tk 5.60.
Swakalpa, another bus service, and a local bus operator on Kamalapur-Gulshan route charge Tk 10 and Tk 5 respectively for the same distance.
Labbayek provides two contact numbers written on the tickets for reporting any complaints. Attempted, one of the numbers was found not in use while the other could not be connected.
Contacted over phone, MA Hasan, the managing director of Labbayek, claimed that they do not overcharge the passengers. “The fare is just”, he said, and cut off.
Noisorgo, Malancha, Mega City, Raja City, Silk City, Midway, Torongo, City, and Swatabdi are some bus services operating on the Mirpur and Mohammadpur roads. They were found overcharging too. People traveling in the buses between Shahbagh and Science Laboratory have to pay Tk 10 for a distance of only 1.36km.
“The fare should not be more than Tk 3”, said Farhana Nasrin, a student of Dhaka City College, and asked, “Where are empty seats? Do you find any seats unoccupied?”
“We have been hostage of the transport owners”.
Nasrin said the bus owners use sitting service only to charge passengers extra fare. “Whenever the government fixed new rate, it came as bliss for the owners as they never revise the rates except increasing”.
A report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), published in 2009, said transport operators are charging up to 75 percent extra fares from passengers in Dhaka Metropolitan area. The report also claimed that the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has no effective role in controlling motor vehicles.
Research Officer of TIB Rezaul Karim said the scenario has not changed yet, rather worsened. “Now the bus owners charge fare 2-3 times higher than the usual”, he said.
Mohsin Hossain, assistant director (eng) of the BRTA, told the correspondent that the BRTA only gives route permit. The bus owners set the sitting service system by themselves, he added.
“Besides checking driving licence and fitness of buses, we check if the bus operators abide by the fare rates fixed by the government”, said BRTA Magistrate Tofael Islam.
About sitting service, he said the mobile court would “check the matter from now on”.
The TIB official said the owners seized the advantage to increase bus fare arbitrarily as the government hiked fuel price without discussing about fare rate. The government should discuss with the bus owners before hiking fuel prices, he added.
“Once the fare is raised by the transport operators, the government gets little chance to reduce it. So, the prices of fuel and transportation should be changed or revised at one time”, he said.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
