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Why 'extra'fare if passengers hang on to bus doors?

RtZANUZZAMAN LASKAR
On Monday July 21, hundreds of Titumir College students rioted in downtown Mohakhali battling police and damaging buses on the street. Police clubbed the students while the protesters responded by hurling pieces of bricks at the police.
It all started after a bus ticket seller in Mohakhali tried to overcharge a student for a ride.
"We all use this bus service because it has ticket and counter system and it promises a better service. But why pay the extra money if we have to travel all die way hanging on to the bus door? said Mohammad Al Emran, a student of the college,
"We can avail any other bus services on the same route. They are much cheaper, and offer services that are similar to the ones offered by the counter-
based buses," he said.
Many bus riders agree with Emran. They said that bus services that operate through ticket tokens are actually in some cases worse than local buses.
While these so-called "sitting service", "super service" or "gate-lock" buses do not sell tickets for bus stops in between their ticket counters, they pick up passengers from any point and make them buy ticket for the entire route, Abu Naser from Uttara said.
For instance, Karnaphuli Paribahan, a bus service that runs on Motijhecl-Duaripara route, charges a passenger Tk 10 for a ride from Duaripara to Farmgate. Any passenger bound for Rupnagar, Shiyalbari, Mirpur 10, Kazipara or Shewrapara have to pay the same fare.
"They do not have any fare chart, "said Saleh.
Bus conductors or operators of such bus services apparently find it more profitable to take passengers for shorter distances, he added.
"Almost all of these services are collecting unjust fares at their own will," said Saleh.
"Gate-Lock" services were found to be charging a passenger Tk 9 for a distance of 6 kilometres between Mirpur 10 and Farmgate while the govern ment-fixed fare for the same distance is supposed to be around Tk 7.
On Gulistan-Dhaka Zoo route, local services are collecting even more than the "sitting services" charge. Samoy Niyontran, a "sitting" bus service, collects Tk 13 for the entire distance while tire local services chargeTk 15 for the same distance.
After the recent hike, the fare isTk 1.05 per kilometre for buses
and Tk 1.08 for minibuses. However, different buses -- especially the ones with ticket counters are charging different fares from their passengers, commuters complained.
While Bangladesh Road Transport Authority tried to regulate the fare collected by different bus services by running mobile court operations, ticket sellers have some tricks up their sleeves to deceive the BRIA officials, commuters said.
"They have the original fare printed on the ticket. Before they sell the token, they simply stamp the new price on it," said Abu Syed Sarkar, a resident of Nikunja.
"So, when any official approaches them, they simply show the original ticket tokens with the regular fare printed on them. But later they sell the same ticket at a higher price."
While buses operating with "sitting service" tag assure passengers of vacant seats, most of their passengers end up travelling by hanging off to the bus door despite paying higher fares. Especially during peak hours, these buses are seen crammed with passengers.
BRTA officials admitted that the mechanism to fight such Irregularities in the bus transport sector has proved rather ineffective. They blamed the people involved with the transport business for the failure.
Since the greater majority of the population in the city come from moderate to lower income groups, they have to rely on public transport facilities for their day-to-day activities. It seems that commuting within this city is getting increasingly difficult day by day for then).