Ensuring students' 'half pass' bus fare

Students are the future of a nation. So, they are given various facilities by almost every country in the world. One of the facilities they enjoy is paying half the fare while travelling through transports, widely known as 'half pass' in our country. It is practised in many countries including the United States, Australia, Europe and Africa. Public buses like BRTC (Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation) also accept half the fare from students. However, problems arise when students try to pay 'half pass' fare in private buses. Some privately-owned buses used to take half-fare from the students, earlier. But after the recent hike of bus fares, almost every bus company has decided not to take half-fare from the students. Recently, several incidents have taken place centring the half-fare issue where transport workers misbehaved with the students. They even closed the door when students tried to get on the bus.
'Half pass' is a kind of right to every student. Around one third of the passengers on public and private transport are the students. It is unfortunate that the practice of 'half pass' has not yet implemented properly in Bangladesh. So, we, as general students, urge the authorities concerned to start the 'half pass' system in all buses as we feel embarrassed when faced various types of unwanted situations during travels.

SK Shahriar Hossain,
Student of Jagannath University, Dhaka,
shahrier3921@gmail.com