HC directive to tackle excessive fares on buses

The High Court (HC) Monday asked the Communication Secretary to set up several mobile courts in the capital to control errant public transport operators extracting excess fare from the passengers ignoring the new revised rates, reports UNB. Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) writ petition, a Division Bench headed by Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury issued the interim order. Against the backdrop of a recent chaotic situation over transport fares following increase of fuel price, the government also enhanced bus fares that came into effect on May 19. The HC also issued a series of directives to the authorities concerned to stop extracting excess transport fare. It directed the government to form a monitoring committee consisting of seven members and to take effective measures to execute government approved busminibusCNG-run auto rickshaw fares and to submit progress report every month. The other directives include ensuring display of printed chart of the government approved fare inside every bus and minibus and its counters, setting up of police vigilance teams in every thana to monitor the bus and minibus counters time to time to check collection of excess fare from the passengers, and taking legal action against the errant bus and minibus operators. Advocate Manzill Murshid appeared for the PIL writ petitioner, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).