The latest transport fare hike

The government has again asked the commuters in Dhaka and Chittagong cities to pay more for using compressed natural gas (CNG)-run buses and auto-rickshaws from the first day of the next month. The Minister for Road Transport and Bridges last Thursday announced the hike in fares of CNG-run buses and three-wheelers as a sequel to recent increase in gas tariff. However, the increase is unlikely to remain confined to the latest rates of hike fixed by the government and only to CNG-run buses. Past experience suggests that the transport owners would charge even more and force the passengers of diesel-run buses to pay fares at new rates. It has become a common practice on the part of owners of both CNG- and diesel-run vehicles to hike fares across the board though the revised fares are meant for one particular type of vehicles.

It is better not to say anything about the CNG-run auto-rickshaws. This is a segment of the transport sector over which the authorities, apparently, have little control. The owners give a damn to the officially-fixed daily rent for their three-wheelers and charge at least 30 to 40 per cent more on the drivers who, in their turn, behave the same way with their passengers. What is worse is that while charging fares well beyond the officially fixed ones, they very frequently refuse to go to destinations of the passengers' choice.

The minister concerned, while announcing the hike in bus and three-wheeler fares, also expressed his dissatisfaction over charging more than the government-set fares and said a committee would strictly monitor the 'situation'. The city commuters would be convinced little by the minister's assurance for they are familiar with the ineffectiveness of the same. In the past also whims of the transport operators prevailed over similar assurances made by persons at high places. The owners of public transports such as bus and auto-rickshaws are a group which is apparently highly pampered by the authorities. They get their demands relating to fare hikes fulfilled very often, while the passengers are always neglected. The government has not adequately explained to the public the justification for the latest hike in bus and auto-rickshaw fares.

In such a situation clashes between passengers on one side and bus conductors and auto-rickshaw drivers, on the other, usually become commonplace. The situation is relatively better in the case of buses than the auto-rickshaws. The latter flout almost all rules while plying the roads. And the passengers always remain at the receiving end.

The authorities, unfortunately, have not done enough to redress the grievances of the public on the highhandedness of transport owners and workers. The latter have been flouting most provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act with impunity. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the traffic department of the police are two errant enforcers of the law. Had they meant business the situation would have been far better than the one on the ground.