Govt fixes bus fare as per owners' prescription: Jatri Kalyan Samity
Bangladesh’s Road Transport Act allows the government, bus owners and transport workers to fix the fares, without taking passengers’ opinions
The government fixes bus and other public transport fares according to the prescription of transport owners, claimed Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passenger welfare platform.
At a roundtable held at the National Press Club, marking Passenger Rights Day on Wednesday, Jatri Kalyan Samity General Secretary Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said there is a provision in the international consumer rights law to keep passenger representatives in the fare-fixing committee.
However, Bangladesh's Road Transport Act allows the government, bus owners and transport workers to fix the fares, without taking passengers' opinions. Sometimes the government is hiking fares excessively favouring the owners and disregarding passenger welfare, he said.
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Mozammel also called for an amendment to the Road Transport Act, saying the provision of including passenger representatives to the fare-fixing committee in proportion to the number of bus owners should be added.
"Passengers have become helpless as chaos and anarchy in the transport sector is increasing rapidly. Owners are running the transport as they wish. The government has tried but failed to restore order in this sector," he said.
In the chief guest's speech, the organisation's adviser, Bangladesh Workers Party lawmaker Lutfun Nesa Khan said, "We all know who the bus owners are — politicians. They do not seem to care about the plight of passengers."
"The residents of Dhaka have been suffering for decades due to the anarchy in bus fares. The drivers are obtaining licences by illegal means. They could get driving licences because there is corruption involved and the owners are responsible for this," Lutfun Nesa said, adding that passenger welfare has been grossly neglected in the Road Transport Act.
Kazi Riazul Haque, former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, said, "We have been fighting for establishing passenger rights for a long time. However, the government kept no scope for the opinions and participation of passengers in the Road Transport Act."
