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Truckers face risk, charge higher fare

M Abul Kalam Azad
Forty-year-old Ripon is a trucker from Puthia, Rajshahi. A caring father, husband and son, he was not at all eager to take life risks and drive for fast money during hartals and blockades.
But not everything goes according to one's wish. His small savings soon got exhausted and he was faced with the question, "What to do now?"
This is during the opposition's just-ended 71 -hour countrywide roads, railways and waterways blockade.
Ripon finally decided to volunteer for
FROM PAGE 16 transporting vegetables to the capital, apparently to earn three times more than his usual pay.
"I started towards the capital with radishes and beans on Tuesday around 8:30pm," said Ripon, adding that he had chosen a different route to Sirajganj to avoid Natore, where attacks on vehicles were more rampant.
But little did he know that trouble was waiting for him. His truck was stopped at Kancikata and Bonpara by two groups of people.
"Give us Tk 3,000, or we will torch your truck," Ripon quoted one of the Kanchikata youth as saying. The young man was showing a matchbox to scare him while the others were hitting the truck with sticks.
"I gave them the money and escaped unhurt," said Ripon, adding that similar incident took place in Bonpara too.
Ripon reached Jatrabari of the capital Wednesday around 1:30am and started back for home a couple of hours later fearing trouble on the way.
He had taken some narrow and odd roads to reach his destination, said Ripon, who gotTk 7,000 for the risky trip. He gets Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000 on regular days.
Ripon is one of the many truckers who risk their lives and vehicles to bring vegetables and fishes in the capital amid hartals and blockades.
Tufan Ali, owner of the truck that Ripon drives, said he usually charges Tk 16,000 for a trip to Dhaka.
"But during hartal, it is I k 70,000 due to the risks involved in the journey," said Tufan, who had another truck badly damaged by pickets during a hartal earlier this month.
As a result, vegetables and fishes are being sold at higher prices in the city kitchen markets, compel-
ling consumers to pay two to three times more than the actual prices.
Nahidul Islam, a trader at Jhalmolia bazar in Puthia, told The Daily Star: "We always keep in touch with the traders in Dhaka, and send them items on the understanding that they will be sold at higher prices."
They buy radishes at Tk 2 to 3 a kilogram at the bazar, which is sold atTk 20 to 25 a kg in the capital, he added.
Mojibor Rahman, a wholesaler in the capital's Karwan Bazaar, said a truck had charged Tk 80,000 for carrying 10,000 kgs of beans from Jessore on Tuesday night.
"We hike the prices of items to make up for the extra transport charge. But it does not work everyday," he added.
Wholesaler Shohag said yesterday, "We sold five kg of beans at the rate ofTk 100 to 120 three days ago. The price has shot up to Tk 140
due to the blockade."
A retailer, Suman, was selling radishes at Tk 25 a kg at Karwan Bazar, which was Tk 15 just before the blockade.
Another truck driver Hashmat, who started from Chuadanga at 7:00pm on Monday with 15,000kg of vegetables, said: "I reached Paturia at 8:00am the next morning. I stayed there the whole day and started for Dhaka at 8:00pm [Tuesday|. I reached Karwan Bazaar at midnight after crossing several hurdles. In the meantime, 200 to 300 kg of the vegetables got rotten."
Starting from Benapole with cotton on Monday evening, Belal, another driver, was held up at Paturia ferry terminal until filing of this report at 6:00pm yesterday.
He told The Daily Star over the phone that more than a hundred truck drivers were still waiting there, much to their frustration.