Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passengers' welfare platform, demanded the government cancel the 60 per cent increase in bus fare which came into effect from June 1 in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic.
Most public transports in the country are not even following the hygiene rules amid the pandemic, it claimed in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Even though the coronavirus situation remains the same, no public transport in the country is following the hygiene rules. None of the conditions under which the increased fare was promised is being maintained in the buses, Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary-general of Jatri Kalyan Samity, said in the statement.
He alleged that passengers are being carried in the old manner when everything was normal and still are being charged extra, more than the government announced 60 per cent fare hike on most of the routes. As a result, the coronavirus crisis has become a misery for the commoners who have lost their jobs and income, he added.
The passengers' welfare platform also claimed that leguna, human haulers, auto-rickshaw and paddle-rickshaw fares also have almost doubled amid restricted movement during the Covid-19 crisis.
nh/sik/teb