The city dwellers of Dhaka have expressed their deep dissatisfaction over the role of the country’s two major political parties in holding repeated political programmes, hindering daily activities of the people and adding to their sufferings.
Commuters at different bus stops in the capital alleged that ruling Awami League and main opposition BNP were not concerned about public welfare, and the people had been suffering because of the parties’ political programmes.
The added that the two parties had been holding programmes like hartal, blockades, grand rallies, demonstrations, processions and human chains, which ultimately affects the vehicular movement in the whole city.
In the last two weeks, people got only four working days, thanks to BNP led 18-party alliance enforced six days of hartal from October 27-29 and from November 4-6. On the other hand, the ruling party also held a grand rally on November 3 to mark the historic “Jail Killing Day.”
All these political programs ended with nothing but lost lives, disasters brought upon many people and immense sufferings in daily life, the commuters said.
Meanwhile, the people had to face some untoward situations because of the tight security measures like random checking in the city during the opposition enforced hartal hours, they added.
Shariful Bashar, a resident of the city’s Shantinagar area, told The Dhaka Tribune: “The politicians have no headache regarding the sufferings of the general people.”
Meanwhile, Farida Akhrtar, a resident of Mohammadpur area, said: “Nowadays the sufferings of city dwellers has crossed the limit and necessary steps should be taken to mitigate the woes.”
Transport problems, according the general people, are one of the main concerns during the political programme hours. Because of shortage of public buses on the roads and high fares charged by the CNG auto-rickshaw drivers, people suffer the most.
Israt Jahan, an employee of a private firm, said: “The BRTC do not ply its buses during strikes and travelling in local buses is risky and tough. That left me with no option but to hire a CNG auto-rickshaw.”
Alleging that taking the advantage of the situation CNG drivers were charging excessive fares, she said: “They charge Tk400-450 for a trip from Uttara to Farmgate.”
When asked, the reason behind defying the rule of counting fare on the meter, a CNG driver Ashraf said: “We get little profit if we follow meters. It is quite hard to run a family with so little money as the price of everything has gone up.”
About the shortage of BRTC buses, Md Rafiqul Islam Talukder, deputy general manager of the BRTC, said: “We stop inter-city services in hartal days fearing the picketing, but we run around 450 buses in and outside of Dhaka on the other days.”
