Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity has demanded that the government fix a fair and reasonable bus and launch fare by rejecting the increased fares.
The organization's secretary general Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury called on the government to make the changes at a press conference held at the Shishu Kalyan Parishad auditorium in the capital’s Segunbagicha on Monday morning.
He added that the government had pledged to increase the rates to a tolerable level after discussing with all the stakeholders, but that did not happen.
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“The way bus fares have been increased in Dhaka and Chattogram can be termed as cruelty. Before the increased bus fare in Dhaka and Chattogram is made effective, it is necessary to address the issue of how many buses run on gas and how many on fuel oil,” he said.
He further mentioned that in the fare fixing analysis, the old buses have been shown as new and false information has been provided about the salaries of the driver-helpers.
“Bank loan has also been shown on 20-year-old bus. Thus, showing unreasonable and unusual price increase in various sectors, the rent has been increased from 1.42 paisa to 1.80 paisa,” he claimed.
He said “Over the last decade, under the control of influential owners, several launches worth Tk 3-4 crore have been added to the fleet. Although the number of these launches is not more than 20-30, the cost of these big launches has been taken into account in determining the fare. As a result, the cost of traveling on affordable waterway vehicles has nearly doubled.”
The organization sought the direct intervention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to fix a fair, acceptable, and realistic fare in coordination with the passenger representatives by canceling the increased fares.
Sharifuzzaman Sharif, member of the organization’s advisory council, vice president Tauhidul Haque Liton, joint secretary general M Manirul Haque, and publicity secretary Anwar Hossain, also spoke at the event.