Bus owners blame system for extortion

Company-based route permit system for buses in Dhaka city is the main cause of extortion, said Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association yesterday, demanding the system be changed.

Under the system, some four to five people form a company and register it with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, said an association leader.  

They then seek a route permit from the Metro Regional Transport Committee and after getting those for a certain number of buses, they admit other bus owners into their company, he said.  

The leader said the companies then charge the bus owners “daily fees”. 

Association President Mashiur Rahman Ranga and its Secretary General Khondaker Enayet Ullah at a press conference at its Paribagh office refuted the allegation of collecting toll from the transport sector and said it only collected subscription fees from its members to run the organisation and its activities.

The organisation held the briefing after leaders of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik-Sramik Oikya League, a relatively new platform of transport owners and workers, accused the association, and particularly its top leader Enayet Ullah, of collecting illegal toll.

Ismail Hossain Bachchu, member secretary of the Paribahan Malik-Sramik Oikya League, raised the allegation at a press briefing earlier this month. 

Ranga and Enayet, however, refuted the allegations and said a vested quarter led by Bachchu, who is facing several criminal cases, including two murder cases, was conspiring to destabilise the transport sector.   

They also urged the administration and the law enforcers to take immediate legal action against Bachchu. 

Enayet said it was true many companies took “additional charges” from bus owners, but the association did not have full control over those companies.  

Bus owners in the capital used to get route permit from owners’ association, but the last BNP-led government introduced the company-based route permit system, he said.  

The companies require an amount to meet some “expenditures”, for tickets, checkers, and office maintenance, but many companies charge the owners extra, he said.

A transport leader said a company takes Tk 700 to 1,400 from a bus daily, citing day-to-day running costs.  

Enayet said the current system of issuing route permit should be changed. 

Ranga, also the opposition chief whip of parliament, said he had talked to the prime minister and made a proposal to install CCTV on highways across the country, which would help ensure road safety and stop illegal toll collection.  

The owners’ association will bear the costs of the project, Ranga said. 

Enayet said their association would help the government enforce the Road Transport Act-2018 from November 1.  

He said they recommended several amendments after the law was passed, and the authorities said they would analyse the recommendations after the law comes into effect.  

Association leaders Mahbubur Rahman, Abul Kalam, and Samdani Khondaker were present at the briefing.