City streets returned to chaos as BRTA gives in
Faruque Ahmed
The abortive government drives to stop special bus services in the city streets using signs like ‘seating service or gate lock’ which are attractive to commuters, though the operators illegally realize at least extra 20% to 25% fare reflects how helpless the government is to the organized lobbies in the transport sector.
The government announced the drive by the middle of this month (April) that the special service will stop in city streets and transport owners can’t realize extra fare. A bus claiming the offer of seating service was realizing Tk 25 for a ride from Mirpur to Motijheel as against Tk 20 fare fixed by the government. Similar exploitation was at work in other routes.
The nexuses at work
It shows the extent of their manipulation while they were stopping at all regular stoppages and picking up passengers breaking their promises. A total chaos was reigning and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) attempted to discipline city transport system by eliminating such services.
It appears that transport owners and workers bodies agreed to the move as the communication ministry threw its weight to make it a success. But from day one most transport owners affected by the drive withdrew their buses from the service creating an acute transport crisis in the city.
Estimates suggest up to 40 percent of buses went off the streets ignoring BRTA’s warning that those buses which will keep off the road will lose route permits and face other punishment. But the bus owners were least bothered and even those buses plying on the road realized extra fare exploiting the acute transport shortage. During the three days that the crisis continued, buses were overcrowded and while many others were seen walking home to and from office.
It became clear that influential people within the government such as ministers, MPs and party leaders colluded to ensure, as some media report said, making the government drives fail. It is because the owners of the transport companies, the leaders of transport owners association and the Workers Federation work together to maintain their stranglehold on the city streets and continue to realize extra transport fare as and when needed, the reports further claim.
In this context, two government ministers are particularly blamed for making the move fail. This is also an open secret that they coordinated actions from behind the scene going against their own government. It appears that the entire country is now hostage to organized godfathers.
Minister says: “They’re very influential”!
The failure of the drive has explained that a solution to the chaos in the city transport system is almost impossible as the people involved both within and without are extremely powerful and they always manipulate to protect their own interest at the cost of the common people. The administration only watches them do so.
They violate existing laws and government directives. They even dare to disregard court verdicts and keep people hostage by enforcing wildcat strikes at any time, an insider says. Even they confront the government when it is about to enact a new law such as “Road Transport Act-2017” that incorporates some clauses including minimum education of a driver (up to class eight) and punishment for neglect to driving causing road accident.
It is clear that the move to stop special seating services in city streets melted away without cooperation from transport owners as a helpless communication minister complained they are so powerful that they don’t even attend meeting for discussion on how to resolve the crisis.
Minister Obaidul Quader helplessly told the media, “What can I do? If someone keeps his bus off the road showing various excuses. Can we bring them back on the street forcibly?” Swallowing his humiliation, he said “Those in the transport sector are no ordinary people. Many of them are very influential … The current situation in the transport sector can be described as noting but anarchy.”
The minister should be ashamed of himself for his being allowed to be cowed down by the hooligans in the transport sector, projecting himself as a weakling politician, expressing his inability to control a gang of hooligans creating chaos and bring them to book. If he can’t do that, he should simply resign from his job, because in the process he has also humiliated the government, Prime Minister Hasina and projecting the whole administration as totally incompetent.
A bad example set
If a minister, who is also the powerful general secretary of the ruling party, surrenders like this before the troublemakers in the transport sector, how could the government reign in the chaos so created. His statement only exposed the government’s vulnerability to the vested interest groups and its inability to tackle any difficult problem.
The BRTA drive was also focused on stopping old dilapidated buses and to make sure that buses without fitness certificate or drivers without driving licenses will not be able to operate in the city streets. Insiders attending the BRTA meeting that put an end to the drive said 40 participants representing bus owners attended the meeting while four were from the police. The civil society had just one person while the ministry had none.
From the very beginning of the meeting, some bus owners behaved as if the BRTA drive had already been over while suggesting suspension of the drive. At one stage, BRTA Chairman left the room and on his return after some time he declared that the drive had been temporarily suspended. BRTA chairman however said the drive against unfit vehicles and drivers without license will continue but activities in city streets suggest this move too has been suspended as the transporters demanded.
“This will set a bad example in the transport sector and will have an adverse impact on its future,” said Ilias Kanchan, chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai, a platform working for ensuring road safety. He also took part in the meeting. “What was the necessity of launching such a drive, if you would stop it midway”, said a commuter while talking to media after the suspension.
