Bangladesh CNG Autorickshaw Driver Sangram Parishad has made 10-points demands including not giving registration (blue-book) of CNG autorickshaws under private ownership without the driver.
They made the demands at a protest rally in front of the National Press Club on Friday.
According to their other demands, long-term bank loans have to be provided to drivers for buying CNG autorickshaws at nominal simple interest, 50 percent subsidy of the loan will be given to government; privately owned CNG autorickshaw registration (blue-book) cannot be provided without driver; daily deposit of CNG autorickshaw in Dhaka metro has to be made Tk 500 and in other districts Tk 300 and no parking lawsuits and meter lawsuits can be filed until ‘Yes Parking’ is provided.
They further demanded that appointment letter has to be given by the current CNG owner; issuance of new licenses and renewal of old licenses has to be provided on easy terms and low cost, CNG should be allowed to ply on highway, zebra crossings, speed breakers and road dividers and arrow marks on roads should be painted in visible colors and road ditches have to be repaired, tolls on all the bridges across the country should be reduced to 50 percent.
Speakers at the rally said, “Even though we work from dawn till late at night, it becomes difficult for us to pay for food, clothing, children's education and rent at the end of the month. We can't even provide treatment if one of the family members falls ill. The owners have unethically increased the deposit twice in a month. Every day we start our journey with a debt burden of Tk 1,600.”
The convener of the organization, Sheikh Hanif, and joint convener Aminul Islam were present during this time, along with others.
