Home ›› 06 Nov 2021 ›› Front
The people in the capital suffered severely on Friday, the first day of the indefinite transport strike, as there were no public transports on roads.
No bus left Dhaka or arrived from districts due to the strike.
In Dhaka and on its outskirts, many, including commuters, jobseekers, and students, were forced to travel by rickshaws, CNG-run autorickshaws, motorcycles, and other modes of transports.
They said they had paid two to five times the usual fares.
Moniruzzaman, who travelled to Mirpur from Savar to take a bank recruitment test, told The Business Post he first went to Hemayetpur from Savar by a rickshaw as there were no buses.
“From Hemayetpur, I went to Gabtoli by a human haulier and then took a rickshaw again to reach Mirpur. It cost me Tk 400, although I pay Tk 30 during normal times for the journey,” he said.
He also said the suffering on the road due to the unavailability of public transports was the worst part of his journey.
“The journey took over three hours. It is a 40-minute journey during normal times,” he added.
Traffic on the ever-busy Dhaka-Aricha highway came to a halt for nearly an hour as candidates seeking admission to seven colleges under the University of Dhaka blocked it protesting against the strike.
They gathered on the highway around 8am and blocked its both sides.
People in other divisions, including Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Sylhet, and Mymensingh, also suffered for the lack of public transports.
Train and launch services were out of the strike’s purview, but launch passengers said they were charged Tk 20-50 more depending on destinations.
Badiuzzaman Badal, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Inland Waterways Passengers Carrier Association, said launch owners used to charge passengers less than the official fares.
“We are now temporarily charging a little more,” he said.
He said they would have a meeting with Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority on Monday to discuss fare revision. “We demand a 100% fare hike because the latest revision was done in 2007,” he said.
He further said launch owners would also join the strike if the government did not meet their demand as they were also counting losses.
The government on Wednesday increased diesel and kerosene prices by Tk 15 per litre — from Tk 65 to Tk 80 — to keep them in line with the rising fuel prices in the global market. The hike took effect on Thursday midnight.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division in a press release on Friday said Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had paid Tk 1,147.6 crore in subsidies in the last five and a half months due to the fuel price increase in the global market.
It said the government continuing subsidies would threaten the country’s energy security and also hamper the Tk 33,734 crore development plan of the sector.
Fuel prices in Bangladesh were still lower than many neighbouring countries, it said.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader at a press briefing at his residence in the capital on Friday urged transport owners to call off the strike considering people’s suffering.
He said a Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) committee would hold a meeting on Sunday to revise public transport fares.
“We will discuss this with stakeholders and try to keep the additional pressure on the people to a tolerable limit through a reality-based price adjustment.”
Rustam Ali Khan, convener of Bangladesh Truck Covered Van Owners and Workers Association, told The Business Post on Friday they would not withdraw the strike.
He said they had called the strike for greater public interest to keep commodity prices stable.
Khondaker Enayet Ullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association, said the strike would be in force at least till Sunday.
“After the BRTA meeting, we will decide whether we will resume bus services or not,” he said.
Friday’s strike also caused businessmen, including exporters and importers, serious trouble.
They feared huge losses and were worried that the fuel price hike would also raise production costs.
People always bear the brunt
Palash Mahmud, chief executive of Conscious Consumers Society, said traders started hiking prices of essential commodities when the government announced the fuel price hike.
Businessmen and transport leaders said the hike would cause bus fares and commodity prices to increase soon.
They said people would bear the brunt of the fuel price hike eventually.
Traders said the hike had already impacted kitchen markets as prices of different vegetables and other products had gone up, and the impact could be felt from Saturday (today).
Before the latest hike, the government increased fuel prices in 2013. After that, fuel prices in the global market reduced, but the government did not decrease prices in the domestic market until 2016.
Prof M Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, sees the hike as illogical as it takes at least three months for the global price hike effect to be felt in Bangladesh.
BPC officials said diesel alone accounts for around 78% of the country’s fuel consumption.
In the fiscal year 2020-21, diesel consumption was 45.97 lakh tonnes while the country’s total fuel consumption stood at 63 lakh tonnes.
Transport and agriculture sectors are going to suffer a hard knock owing to the fuel price hike because 75% of buses, trucks, launches, and trains run on diesel while 99% of irrigation pumps depend on this material, said BPC.
More than four lakh goods carriers, including trucks and covered vans, and 1.5 lakhs buses run in the country at present.
Besides transports, diesel and kerosene are used in agriculture and service sectors.
Palash said the fuel price hike might affect these sectors as well.
