We applaud our brave students for standing by the traders and businessmen to keep the wheels of the country’s economy running. To everybody’s surprise, our young generation is making the impossible possible by taking bold and noble intitative to fight all sorts of extortion on roads and highways across the country.
They are monitoring kitchen markets to check the price hike of essential commodities and they also remain vigilant on roads and highways so that local hoodlums canot take illegal tolls from from traders, drivers of buses and goods-laden trucks. They (students) are also assuring traders that from right now, nobody will dare to force them to pay tolls.
The people involved in the transport sector and businessmen are very happy as the students remain active in their respective areas so that no hoodlums, extortionists and armed goons can disrupt business by threatening them to pay illegal tolls.
Business people have heaved a sigh of relief as the country’s overall situation is gradually improving thanks to students’ courageous role .
We believe that traders will see no extortion on roads and highways from now on and they will now be able to freely transport their goods across the country. Our students are also monitoring the kitchen markets to tame the price hike of essential commodities.
Our students have taken comprehensive measures to ensure security on highways. As part of they measures, they are patrolling on highways. Coordination with the police will also be part of the security strategy.
The people involved in the transport
sector and businessmen are very
happy as the students remain
active in their respective areas
Once the collectional of illegal tolls was a common phenomenon in the country. A section of policemen and armed goons used to collect tolls from goods-laden trucks on different roads and highways across the country. Armed goons would stop every vehicle on highways and roads and collect tolls despite police assurance.
Transport costs were increasing due to unabated extortion which led to the soaring prices of essentials. Traders and transport workers were forced to give extortion money on different highways at gun point. Dishonest law enforcers used to indulge in extortion in the name of checking transport documents.
Traders, transport leaders, and workers called for a end to extortion. Despite the preventive measures, goods-laden trucks and cargo vessels had to face wide-scale extortion and harassment on highways and waterways
Some highway policemen and police sergeants had been involved in realising illegal toll from Dhaka-bound trucks and covered vans every day.
Almost all roads, highways, bazars, market, and shopping malls were a safe heaven for extortion. The extorted money was distributed among a section of law enforcers and armed goons and officials of the local administration.
The officer-in-charge (OC) and officials of every police station across the country used to get the lion share of the extorted money. Therefore, centring distribution of the toll serious clashes occurred sometimes among the police and hoodlums.
When any occasion like religious and other festival nears, a gang of extortionists had become desperate to collect tolls. All know collection of illegal tolls is is a decade-long practice. Various measures had been taken to free the traders and transport sector from extortionists. But, all efforts went in vain. The toll collected on roads and highways and in the kitchen market by influential persons are one of the main reasons behind the price hike of essentials.
