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Editorial

BRTC bus fare cut by half for students

Private operators should follow the corporation


Bangladeshpost
Published : 28 Nov 2021 08:50 PM

The government and transport owners should be equally sincere in implementing half fare for students immediately. A meeting on half fare for students in public transports ended with no decision on Saturday as transport owners put forth a set of proposals including the formation of a task force. It is very unfortunate to note that when the government has decided to reduce fares of BRTC buses by 50 percent for the students, the private transport owners are not backtracking on the issue, making the situation more complicated.

Blocking roads and important intersections students of different colleges and schools in capital Dhaka, other metropolitan cities and district towns continue staging demonstrations, demanding half fare for bus rides for them.  Sometimes, they also go on a rampage and vandalise several transports, causing immense suffering to thousands of commuters, including SSC examinees, patients and office-goers almost every day.

Transport owners must accept

 the demands of the students 

unconditionally

We think such chaos on roads must not be continued. Therefore, the government and the transport owners must sit together again to come up with a decision as soon as possible. In this regard, the transport owners must accept the demands of the students unconditionally. All stakeholders should strive to find out an early and peaceful solution to the crisis.A unanimous decision should be taken after forming a task force with relevant officials as early as possible. Besides, transport cards for the students will have to be introduced, which would ensure the identity of the educational institutions. Also, the students have to carry their legal identity cards issued by their respective educational institutions during the travel. And the government must issue a gazette notification to this end immediately. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has already battered guardians’ income over the last two years, struggling to pay their children’s tuition fees. Besides, many students have been dropped this year due to financial hardship of their respective families. In this situation, bus fares have been doubled and therefore, the students are waging a movement.We think the students’ demand for half bus fare is logical. Therefore, we hope that the private transport owners will take a positive decision being sensitive to the demand made by the students and considering their own social responsibility.