Private bus owners have placed certain conditions to introduce half fare for students.
Once their conditions are fulfilled, they are likely to allow half fare for students.
Although no decision has been made on the half fare for students in privately owned buses, several proposals including the formation of a task force have been made by the transport leaders in the meeting.
It has been said that a decision will be made later after considering the proposals.
It is demanded to implement the decision that will come after the formation of the task force.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) chairman Nur Mohammad Majumder and Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association president Khandaker Enayet Ullah shared the information with journalists after a long meeting on Saturday.
The BRTA chairman and transport leaders urged the students to leave the road and return to the educational institutions till a decision is reached to halve the bus fare.
Noor Mohammad Majumder said, “Concessions have been offered by transport leaders. The leaders wanted a statistic of how many educational institutions, how many students, how many people use buses. The Ministry of Education will provide that information.”
Regarding the formation of the task force, the BRTA chairman said, “Transport leaders are sincere about implementing half fare on buses. But a proposal has been made to form a task force with the government and those involved in transport to decide how to compensate for the losses and how much subsidy they will get. I will inform the government about the task force.”
Khandaker Enayet Ullah said, “The government was trying to resolve the students’ demands logically. 80 percent of the owners in Dhaka are poor. The government will have to decide how to compensate the owners for the loss of half the rent. We have made some suggestions. I have proposed forming a task force with everyone.”
The transport leader said that bus vandalism and beatings of workers continue demanding half fare. However, he urged the students to return to the educational institutions.
Asked when the task force would be formed, the BRTA chairman said, “This is a new proposal. The formation of the task force will be decided later.”
Senior officials including BRTA held talks with the leaders of Bus Owners Association and Workers Federation at the BRTA office to address the issue of half fare for students.
President of Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association Abdul Baten Babu, Assistant Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Md. Ashfaq and Senior officials of BRTA were present at the meeting.
