Family members carry a patient to a hospital by a rickshaw van in Chandpur for lack of motor vehicles on Tuesday, the first day of the nonstop roadblock by the BNP. The snap was shot at a point on Chandpur-Comilla highway. banglar chokh Buses plied on at least 50 of the total 361 routes from Dhaka including Dhaka-Chittagong during the blockade programme called by BNP on Tuesday. The luxurious buses worth Tk 80 lakh to Tk 2 crore were kept off the streets while the buses worth Tk 15 to 20 lakh plied the road on the day. Luxurious buses did not leave the capital’s three major terminals for destinations till the evening of Tuesday. However, some of the luxurious buses were preparing for leaving the city at night. Buses came to Dhaka on Monday night from different areas of the country under police protection. According to highway police sources, decision has been taken to keep the situation normal by running long distance buses under police protection. As BNP alliance called non-stop blockade, the ruling circle has put pressure on transport owners to ensure normalcy in transport service. Whereas, transport owners were asked on Sunday and Monday to suspend movement of transports so that the workers and supporters fail to attend the grand rally called by BNP. Thus, caught in the ‘politics of street’ of rulers and their rival the people of the country are plunged in immense sufferings. It may be recalled here that in December 2013 long distance buses from Dhaka ran under police protection during the blockade called by BNP-led opposition. Before that during the rule of BNP-led 4-party alliance similar situation was created in the opposite way. On a visit to uttar Jatrabari of Dhaka at 1-15pm on Tuesday I found that many buses and mini-buses were moving on the roads beneath the Mayor Hanif flyover. It was seen in front of uttar Jatrabari park that commuters were being taken in the bus stopped there occupying the road. Conductor Masum Khan was inviting passengers to get on a bus of Asyan Transport (No Dhaka Metro Ja 14-2768 on Jatrabari-Gauchia route. A bus of Al Rahi Transport of Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar ran speedily. Three pick-ups were found in front of Jatrabari Kolapatti. These will go to Gajaria of Munshiganj. The driver said, “There is no major threat on Dhaka-Chittagong high way. Because, there is police protection. Moreover, what will we eat if the vehicles are not in operation. Earlier, on Sunday and Monday, the city roads wore a deserted look for not having any vehicles. The bus counters at Sayedabad terminals, Janapath intersection, Jatrabari and Golapbagh were closed. After BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia announced indefinite transport blockade across the country from Tuesday, the picture of city roads and highways changed a lot. The pro-government transport owners reportedly decided to run their vehicles amid blockade. It is evident that the political parties always abuse the transport sector to tame the opponent. As a result, the common people and commuters become worst sufferers. The pro-government transport leaders allegedly try to keep vehicle services inoperative under the pretext of opposition party called hartal and blockade. They send message to the media expressing their intention to run vehicles. In reality, they ask vehicle owners to suspend transport service over phone. Bangladesh Transport Association secretary general Khandker Enayetullah said “We have not asked anybody to suspend transport service. But the drivers are reluctant to run vehicle being afraid of arson attack.” The BNP announced March for Democracy in December 2013 and its grand rally in March 2012 were followed by countrywide transport blockade. Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, a platform of 200 transport workers unions, rejected the claim that they suspended transport service at the behest of ruling party. He claimed the ruling party members in their association are not majority. He further said the transport sector faced blockade in 2003 at per suggestion of BNP led four party regime. The instant blockade was called by BNP-led 20 party combine. Former caretaker government adviser M Hafiz Uddin Khan said the transport workers will be deprived of income amid blockade programme. He called upon the political parties to shun the politics of street. Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association secretary general Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said the people have fallen prey to the ruling and opposition parties’ politics of paralyzing transport sector. Passengers suffered in some areas in the capital for lack of buses. They are forced to pay three to four times fare to reach destinations. The sufferings of city passengers were mostly seen at Kuril Biswa Road, Gabtali, Shamoly, New Market, Bangla Motor, Mogbazar, Mouchack, Tongi, Abdullahpur, Uttara, Airport, Sanir Akhra and Kanchpur in the capital. Mainul Islam who was waiting for the bus at Kuril Biswa Road in the afternoon said, “Country’s politics is responsible for our sufferings.” The train movement was normal on Tuesday. Passengers came in the city by waterways. A decision has been taken to guard passenger and goods-laden vehicles by police to keep vehicle movement normal. Passenger-vehicles as well as goods-laden covered truck will ply today from different terminals of the capital with the help of police. It has been learnt that a 2.5 hour-long meeting was held among the highway police and RMG leaders. General Secretary of Bangladesh Truck-Covered Van Owners’ Association Rustam Ali said police security is being tightened to keep passenger movement by buses and commodity transportation normal. Trucks, covered vans moved in various highways including Dhaka-Chittagong routes in the night and will move. Sources said on Monday night buses from various places started towards capital under police guard and reached in the city early morning. Three buses- Ruposhi Bangla, ENA paribahan and Shamoly paribahan- came in the capital from Sylhet Bianibazar. Several long route buses are prepared to start journey towards capital. Though police are ensuring security to buses, transport owners and workers are not interested to ply vehicles fearing violent activities. On the other hand, the transport sector is facing loss of Tk 360 crore per day for not plying vehicles. The main target of BNP-led 20 party alliances is transport as two days ahead of anniversary of 10 th parliamentary election several vehicles were burnt in the capital. Moreover petrol bombs were hurled at buses. Under this circumstance, passengers are not showing their interests to travel by buses in case of urgency. The number of bus passengers was half in city buses on Tuesday. As per the estimation of road transport owners and workers associations, some 1100 vehicles were burnt during the political violence last year. Some 56 persons including drivers and assistants were killed that time. According to Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, some 222 bus passengers were killed during the violence of last year. The transport sector is incurring loss of Tk 360 crore everyday for shutdown of bus services. Last year, this sector faced loss of Tk 31 thousand crore for political violence. Statistics of BRTA show there are 21 lakh registered vehicles in the country. Some seven lakh vehicles are carrying passengers and goods on the highway besides motorcycles and private cars. When asked about plying of goods carrying transports on the roads, Rustom Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Truck-Covered Van Owners Association told this correspondent, “The numbers of covered vans are 14,000 in the country. About 10,000 covered vans are plying in normal time. Now 3000 to 4000 covered vans are plying in the streets. The number will rise if the police beef up patrol. Normal and local buses plied different routes from the capital’s Syedabad, Mohakhali and Gabtoli terminals on Tuesday. Most of the luxurious buses did not move. Some one thousand buses and minibuses have been plying 60 different routes of northern districts from Mohakhali bus terminal everyday. Of them more than half of a hundred buses left the terminal for different destinations. Many buses left Gabtoli terminal for different destinations including Savar, Manikganj, Aricha and Faridpur. Khandker Enayet Ullah, Secretary General of Dhaka Road Transport Association said, despite blockade, movements of long route buses were normal but in a small scale. Abul Kalam, leader of Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association said most of the long route buses could not leave Mohakhali bus terminal. Md Nazrul Islam, an officer of Hanif Paribahan counter of Kalyanpur told this correspondent, everyday more than 300 passenger carrying buses left for different destinations. Some paribahan will leave from this counter on Tuesday night. We started to sale ticket from noon. When this correspondent visited Syamoli Paribahan counter at Syedabad it was found that there was no passenger for collecting ticket. Md Delwar Hossain, manager of the counter told this correspondent some 20 to 25 bus passengers came to the counter for collecting ticket. We did not give them ticket because bus will not ply. Counters of Dola Paribahan, Ananda Paribahan, Ara Paribahan, Ekushey Paribahan and Unique Paribahan of Syedabad remained closed. Normal situation was restored on the outskirts of the city yesterday. The movement of public transport started increasing gradually but private car was seen less in the streets. Though buses plied passengers for different destinations like Jatrabari, Syedabad, Mirpur, Shabagh and Farmgate was very poor. Some bus service like JM seating service on Jatrabari-Tongi route, Suprovat Paribahan on Sadarghat-Gazipura route, Bihongo Paribahan on Mirpur-Sadarghat route and Balaka on Syedabad-Gazipur route were visible on the street yesterday. Most of the vehicles were without fitness.
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