Most roads in Gazipur district were seen empty on Saturday morning, as public transportation remained off following the government’s announcement of a hike in fuel oil prices.
Locals reported that the number of buses and other transportation was less than usual, causing inconvenience to commuters, especially office-goers.
Hundreds of people were seen at bus stops throughout the district, waiting for buses that never showed up.
Due to this, many walked to their destinations, when they also failed to manage CNG-run autorickshaws and human haulers.
A ready-made garment (RMG) worker, Al-Amin Hossain said: “If we knew that the public transportation would be off today (Saturday), we would have headed out earlier for our workplaces. This system does not make sense.”
Dhaka TribuneRickshaws, human haulers and auto-rickshaws have doubled their fares to take advantage of the situation, he said.Another office-goer, Rafiqul Islam, complained that he could not reach his office even though he started at 7am.
On the other hand, filling stations in Gazipur refused to sell fuel oils late on Friday and Saturday morning.
This led to protests and arguments among the filling station authorities and motorcyclists.
Md Palash from the Bagher Bazar area of Gazipur, said that he travels to the office on a motorcycle every day. “It’s not possible for me to go to my workplace with increased fuel prices now. My salary would cover only a month’s fuel expenses.”
Gazipur Road Transport Workers Union President Sultan Uddin said there is no shortage of vehicles on the road. “However, the vehicles that did not have fuel stocked, could not ply on roads in the morning.”
He added that there were no orders from authorities to suspend public transportation.
The government on Friday said it was forced to increase fuel oil prices, considering high prices in many different countries including neighbouring India.
The sharp rise, around 50%, came as a surprise since the authorities recently rumors of a possible crisis over fuel stock.
Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal also claimed that there is no pressure from global lender IMF to raise the prices.
Now the prices of diesel and kerosene per litre at the consumer level is Tk114, octane Tk135, and petrol Tk130.
