CNG-run auto-rickshaw fare and owners' daily rental charge
Monday, 23 March 2009
IT started very well and on a right and inspirational note. We were going to use natural gas as fuel for vehicles. It was less costly and far, far cleaner for the atmosphere. It began with vehicles converting to use CNG. Then we began importing CNG auto-rickshaws from India. At first, it cost Tk 0.157 million (1.57 lakh). Today the same machine is nearly Tk 0.7 million in (7.0 lakh). Has the import cost increased? Only the importers can tell you that. But how has that impacted on us? Actually we feel it everyday when the drivers demand the fare.
But there is another side to it. We face only the hapless driver who does not own the vehicle and has to give the actual owner Tk 600 (+Tk30 for the garage) each night after the day's work. The government had calculated how much the drivers should pay the owner and came up with a figure which would have still meant a good amount of money for the owner -- Tk 400 -- but that was flouted from day one.
The drivers if they feel like it sometimes do explain as one did the other day. Said he: "Sir, we know you feel like hitting us every time we ask a fare that you consider exorbitant. But what are we to do? How can we pay the owner and keep some for us if we don't charge you Tk10-30 more than what the meter reads? The people who directed the owners to accept Tk 400 do not see what we are forced to pay them nor do the police and as for the passengers they certainly do not care in the least except they pay vent to their outrage. But do they know how we run our lives along with our families? And finally if one driver reports his owner he will never get a job in this line!'
M Sharafat
Narinda
Dhaka
But there is another side to it. We face only the hapless driver who does not own the vehicle and has to give the actual owner Tk 600 (+Tk30 for the garage) each night after the day's work. The government had calculated how much the drivers should pay the owner and came up with a figure which would have still meant a good amount of money for the owner -- Tk 400 -- but that was flouted from day one.
The drivers if they feel like it sometimes do explain as one did the other day. Said he: "Sir, we know you feel like hitting us every time we ask a fare that you consider exorbitant. But what are we to do? How can we pay the owner and keep some for us if we don't charge you Tk10-30 more than what the meter reads? The people who directed the owners to accept Tk 400 do not see what we are forced to pay them nor do the police and as for the passengers they certainly do not care in the least except they pay vent to their outrage. But do they know how we run our lives along with our families? And finally if one driver reports his owner he will never get a job in this line!'
M Sharafat
Narinda
Dhaka