Worries about upcoming Eid journeys

People will start leaving the capital city for their homes in distant places within the next few days to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr. Nearly half of the holy month of Ramadan is now over. The Eid-ul-Fitr is the largest religious festival of the Muslims. But their mood of celebration usually gets soured because of the sufferings and hassles associated with the home-bound journeys. Two factors cause enough of pains to the Eid-goers; the first one relates to securing seats in all modes of transports using air, land and water routes and the second, to poor road conditions.
The problem with managing seats in all modes of transports during Eid vacations is nothing new. The number of all modes of transports has gone up over the years in keeping with the rise in the size of the population and their transportation needs. Yet on the eve of major festivals, the transports available can hardly cope with the onrush of passengers, leading to untold sufferings to the latter. Those who can manage to go home early usually do not face that much of trouble. But most others who intend to make journeys in the final days of Ramadan find it hard to manage seats in any modes of transport.
The Bangladesh Railway and public as well as private bus operators and passenger launches sell tickets in advance. But because of alleged black marketing and use of undue influence by powerful quarters, most home-goers fail to manage tickets. They are forced to buy rail, bus and launch tickets at high prices in the black market. To make things worse, the bus-and passenger launch-owners hike their fares on the eve of two annual Eid festivals -- the Eid-ul-Fitr and the Eid-ul-Azha. Despite official assurances to make their journeys smooth and hassle-free, the home-goers during the Eid festivals face all the problems mentioned above. The upcoming Eid is unlikely to be any exception.
For the last two to three years, the unpliable conditions of major roads and highways had caused enough of discomfort to the home-goers on the eve of two Eid festivals. The monsoon rains primarily had worsened the road conditions. The work on two major highways connecting Dhaka with Chittagong and Mymensingh is yet to be completed. The roads and bridges ministry has, hopefully, taken necessary measures to make the road pliable and help avoid repetition of old sufferings of the Eid-goers this time.
Going by the developments that usually take place, particularly involving the road and river transports on the eve of Eid festivals, one has reasons to believe that serious efforts on the part of the public offices concerned are enough to bring an end to sufferings that the people usually undergo. But the owners as well as workers of these modes of transports, as it is widely believed, go beyond the lawful limit in fixing prices of tickets and cause other problems to passengers on the occasion of two Eid festivals because of their political links and patronisation coming from powerful quarters. Unless and until everyone concerned plays by the rule and makes genuine efforts to make the homebound journeys of the Eid-goers smooth and comfortable as far as possible, there will be no change in the situation on the ground.