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Buses stay off road to protest illegal toll collection

Staff Correspondent
Illegal toll collectors are at work again alongside the two authorised private operators at three bus terminals in the city -- Sayedabad, Mahakhali and Gabtoli.
At Sayedabad, 77 passenger buses of Sundarban Paribahan kept off the road yesterday for the second consecutive day, protesting illegal toll collection.
Some owners and drivers told The Daily Star, "For the last three days some extortionists led by one
Akhteruzzaman Akhter and his accomplices -- Razzaq, Montu, Khorshed and Hiru, have been collecting Tk 500 from each bus plying the southern route, despite repeated protests."
The extortionists snatched Tk 16,000 from Solaiman, a driver, after he refused to pay tolls. He was injured in the attack.
Out of the 87 buses of Sundarban Paribahan only 10, owned by the extortionists themselves, were operating, said the aggrieved owners.
And one of them said they would continue the strike today if there were no acceptable solution.
"We have filed a complaint accusing 12 persons including Akhter, Razzaq, Montu, Khorshed and Hiru with Demra Police Station, and the officer-in-charge (OC) called us yesterday evening to settle the matter," he added.
Besides, buses on route-8 plying between Demra-Shanir Akhra-Shyampur and Gabtoli pay tolls to local extortionists at different points.
We have to pay Tk 30 at Ranimahal (Demra) and Tk 20 at Jatrabari every day, said a conductor of a bus of the Ranimahal-Gabtoli route.
The same is true about the human haulers and other buses plying from the area to Mirpur, Mohammadpur and others places in the city, the conductor said.
Former MP Akhteruzzaman, managing director of Rora Enterprises, one of the private firms in charge of management of Sayedabad and Mahakhali terminals, said he informed Demra police of the problem created by extortionists.
He said the private operators are going to introduce a digital system of toll collection (through card-
punching) before June next year to avoid mismanagement.
About 1800 buses leave Sayedabad terminal every day, according to the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). But tolls are being collected from 1550 buses, while at Mahakhali, out of around 700 buses the private operators get tolls from only 500.
M Babul of Diba Enterprises, which collects tolls from Gabtoli terminal, said they were getting tolls from 700 buses, instead of about 1400, for five days, as some owners refused to pay tolls. The problem was solved at a meeting with the owners on Saturday. It was chaired by DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.