Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity has demanded immediate halt to fare anarchy and harassment of passengers, alleging that transport owners and extortionists are looting Tk 8,000 crore by collecting extra fares during this year’s Eid journey.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of the organization, made the demand at press a conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity in Dhaka on Thursday.
He said that a strong syndicate of fare anarchists has been formed under the leadership of some greedy transport owners and extortionists by exploiting the public transport crisis.
“There might be 60 crore trip passengers on all routes this year from April 25 to May 10. Some 40
crore of these trips might take place by road and 20 crore trips may take place by rail, water and airways,” he added.
According to the observations of Jatri Kalyan Samity, rickshaw fares in urban areas have increased by 20 per cent since April 25. The fare may increase by 100 percent from today (Friday). At the same time, auto-rickshaw and easy bike fares have been doubled and tripled. Double fare is being extracted by human haulers as well.
Fare anarchy has also reached its peak on the waterways. Rail ticket black marketing and the troubles of getting tickets online have also reached their peak this time as compared to any time in the past.
In the written statement, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury further said,“As usual, the fare anarchy has reached its peak on the airways as well. The fare of Dhaka-Barisal 61 aeronautical mile aircraft is being collected almost one and a half times more than the fare of Dhaka-Bangkok, which is located at a distance of 1500 km.”
He mentioned that this time even if an additional amount of Tk 100 is collected from each passenger for 40 crore trips by road, about Tk 4000 crore will be extracted.
“And if an additional Tk 200 is collected from each passenger for 20 crore trips by water, rail and airways, an additional fare of around Tk 4000 crore will be collected. More than Tk 8,000 crore will go to the pockets of the anarchists syndicate, 40 percent of which will be looted by the extortionist syndicate and the remaining 60 per cent will go to the pockets of transport owners,” he said.
Therefore, the organization has demanded effective steps to stop such fare anarchy and harassment of passengers on an urgent basis.
