Students have held a blockade program at the inter-district bus terminal to protest the unreasonable fare collection on the Dhaka-bound Meghalaya Luxury Paribahan bus from Narsingdi.
At the same time, they have called for a boycott of the buses of that transport. The students blockaded the Narsingdi inter-district bus terminal from 11 am to 3 pm on Wednesday. Earlier, the students had called for a boycott of Meghalaya Luxury Paribahan on social media since Tuesday. Due to the students' blockade program, no bus of Meghalaya Luxury Paribahan left for Dhaka from that terminal today and no bus leaving from Dhaka entered that terminal. Many passengers had to return even after reaching the terminal due to the suspension of bus services.
Some students participating in the blockade program said that according to the government notification, the fare per passenger per kilometer is Tk 2.12 . The distance from Narsingdi to Dhaka is 52 kilometers. Accordingly, the fixed fare per passenger should be Tk 110 . However, a bus from Narsingdi to Dhaka is being charged Tk 150.
Due to their syndicate, there is no alternative transport at the terminal. As a result, at least 5,000 people are being harassed daily. According to the government notification, this transport has been boycotted until a fare reduction is announced. The students warned that the buses will not be allowed to run at an additional fare.
Some passengers said that they (Meghalaya Luxury Transport) are collecting an additional fare of Tk 40 from each passenger by syndicating. This is unreasonable and unacceptable in any way. In addition to charging an additional fare, they are stopping the bus at random places without a counter and picking up passengers. Due to these reasons, ordinary passengers are regularly suffering. In addition to reducing the fare, the quality of their passenger service also needs to be improved.
A student named Sayed Sono said, "The owner of Meghalaya Luxury Transport has agreed to discuss with us. If the fare is not reduced, that is, if no solution is found in the discussion, we will be stricter."
ZH
