Extortionists take over city bus terminals

Collect tolls, as they say, for ruling party men, law-enforcers
Some extortionist groups are collecting tolls in the names of ruling party men and law-enforcers from the city’s bus terminals–a phenomenon that has started in recent times after a halt of over two years.
“To depart from Sayedabad bus terminal, I have to pay Tk 150 as GP (GP is a local name of toll) to route committee men, Tk 40 to Dhaka City Corporation men as parking charge while Tk 10-20 to off duty transport workers as Khoraki Bhata (food allowance),” said a bus driver of Isakhan Bus Service plying Dhaka-Kishoreganj route, wishing anonymity.
He said besides Tk 210 to different groups as toll against per trip from the terminal, the route committee also collects Tk 200 against a bus per month in the name of law enforcers for using the terminal.
Over Tk 4 lakh is extorted from Sayedabad terminal each day, as over 2,000 buses use it, sources at the terminal said.
Mohammad Tofael, secretary of Isakhan route committee at Sayedabad, who is also a Jubo League leader of ward no 3 of Siddhirganj, said they collect the money for giving wages to staffs at the counters as well as bus supervisors and linesmen and for meeting printing cost of tickets.
He said he has to maintain the safety of buses of Isakhan when they reach Dhaka and for this he has to provide money to different quarters.
DCC Assistant Manager at the terminal Golam Sarwar said “We realise Tk 40 against a bus for maintaining expenses of sweepers, sitting arrangements at passenger sheds, electricity and sewerage bills and others. The amount also includes parking charge of the buses. We give slips against the collection.”
Sources at different terminals said the ruling party men have taken charge of the transport workers’ unions and owners’ association offices in the capital within three months of the Awami League-led grand alliances coming to power in January.
Three rival pro-AL committees claim their authority simultaneously on Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Samity (DSPS), which is the father organisation of bus owners, and form other committees at the city’s different terminals.
The feuding factions of DSPS are MA Kader-Enayet Ullah, Monir Chowdhury-Kazi Alim Buddin and Ansa Amin-Hasim Dewan group.
Monir Chowdhury alleged that Kader-Enayet committee is collecting tolls from different bus terminals and added that some bus owners of Fulbaria bus stand at Gulistan has reported him (Monir) that Tk 300-400 is extorted against a bus per day.
But Khandkar Enayet Ullah, general secretary of DSPS, said some route committees formed during BNP-led alliance tenure are involved in realising the toll money and in some cases some ruling party men also get involved with them.
He said DSPS would fix the amount of money for service charge or maintenance charge to stop such toll collection and dissolve the committees, formed during the BNP-led alliance tenure.
Different bus owners seeking anonymity said the terminals were almost toll free in 2007 and 2008 and alleged that law enforcement agencies do not play their roles to curb the extortion in the bus terminals rather the law enforcers assist the extortionists in their illegal business.
The route committee members who have links with bus owners and workers association leaders collect Tk 260 as GB from a bus against each trip from Mohakhali terminal. Around 900 buses use the terminal in a day, sources at the terminal said.
Besides, each of around 10 bus companies has to pay about Tk 1.5 lakh to the owners’ association and about Tk 1 lakh to workers’ union leaders per month, according to the sources.
They said extortions at terminals always take place with the help of ruling party men but sometimes extortionists who have no links with them also do such acts including toll collection, which are unbearable to them.
Extortionists not only collect regular tolls from the bus owners, but also compel them to appoint the goons as their staff. As a result, the owners do not get the actual income from their bus.
Even some owners incur loss repeatedly and after a certain period of time they have to sell their bus, a bus owner said.
When contacted, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Manzur Kader Khan said “Our members are not involved in helping toll collection in the transport sector.”
Recently, a 19-member committee, headed by DMP joint commissioner (traffic), has been formed with the representatives from police, transport owners and transport workers’ leaders to check extortion in transport sector but this has yielded no result.

Courtesy of The Daily Star