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Minister pulls for extortion

Shajahan Khan asks JS body to recommend legalising the crime to stop rampant corruption in transport sector

Star Report
It was none but a minister who before a parliamentary sub-committee yesterday demanded that extortion be made legal to stop rampant corruption in the transport sector.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, who heads the Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, made the mind-boggling demand before the committee yesterday. Transport leaders led by him did not stop there; they placed a 17- point demand before the committee, in which they chalked out ways of how the “legal toll collection” would be made from buses, trucks, auto-rickshaws and labourers working in the sector.
In defence of their demands, Shahjahan Khan and Khandaker Enayet Ullah, a top transport owners' leader, yesterday said illegal money collection would stop on the country's roads once “toll collection” was legalised. The controversial minister became the talk of the country last year when he suggested that professional drivers did not need education.
The transport leaders yesterday asked the subcommittee to form another committee led by none other than Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan to implement their recommendations. They also wanted Jatiya Party leader Moshiur Rahman Ranga, executive president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity, and six others as members of the committee.
The parliamentary subcommittee, chaired by M Israfil Alam, held the meeting with top leaders of transport labourers and owners at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban yesterday to devise ways of stopping raging extortion in the sector. The committee had its first meeting on October 13 lastyear.
After the first meeting, the sub-committee informed reporters that transport workers' leaders, especially a minister-led labour organisation, were running an extortion regime and the minister's organisation was having the largest piece of the pie.
“It collects at least Tk 51 crore a year in the name of raising funds for workers' welfare," Israfil told reporters, quoting other transport leaders, following the October meeting.
The sub-committee chief had said at the time that its findings were only the tip of the iceberg and they were yet to get the full picture.
He had said rampant “toll collection” resulted in transport fare hikes by 40 to 200 percent. People end up paying high fares and also increased prices for all commodities, he said.
According to the subcommittee, more than 23 lakh workers are employed in the transport industry, which has over 5 lakh buses. There are 7,490 workers' unions, 510 workers' organisations and 412 bus owners' associations.
At yesterday's meeting of the sub-committee, Shahjahan Khan, Enayet Ullah and others demanded fixing a minimum charge which labourers and owners would pay to run their respective bodies.
They said labourers and owners organisations operating light vehicles and auto rickshaws should be allowed to charge each vehicle Tk 20 a day to run their organisations.
TYuck owners and labourers organisations should be allowed to collectTk20 a day from each member as organisation running cost, said the recommendation placed before the committee.
They also recommended that each bus and truck pay Tk 20 on ferries to meet the expenses of labourers working there.
At the goods loading and unloading points, every truck would have to pay Tk 10. IYucks would have to pay Tk 10 at the beginning and conclusion of every journey.
Leaders of labourers and bus-truck owners organisations recommended that every inter-district bus and truck pay Tk 20 each to labourers and owners unions.
The leaders want payment of Tk 20 for each vehicle requisitioned for the labourers' and owners' unions and to compensate vehicle owners as also meet the daily expenses of labourers.
Shahjahan Khan, labour leaders and Enayet Ullah-led transport owners' leaders yesterday also recommended the formation of a committee comprising all stakeholders to implement policies on running their organisations and different bus terminals.
The committee yesterday did not make any observation regarding the 17-point demand that was placed before it.