Sanwarul Islam Roni, Mirsarai Chittagong: The Dhaka-Chittagong highway, known as the lifeline of the country, is largely impassable. It has been somewhat less for the past few days. From Sunday (August 5) morning onwards, various vehicles, including public transport, on the highway reached almost zero, causing immense suffering to the people.
Since morning, thousands of workers have been seen riding banned CNG, country email list vans, and small pickups on the highways to somehow get to their destinations. Since it was the first day of the week, many people took to the streets to go to work, but were unable to get to work. Those who had to go somehow had to pay much higher fares.
Such a disaster is due to the lack of any movement-oriented stance of students in the Mirsarai Upazila area and the counter-programme of transport workers. Meanwhile, the government has said that it will verify the legality of vehicles on the occasion of Traffic Week, and the people are now suffering greatly due to this program of public transport workers.
Victims and eyewitnesses said that since Sunday (August 5) morning, hundreds of passengers were seen standing at all the stands, big and small, including Mirsarai and Bariyahat municipal areas on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Especially teachers of various schools and colleges located in Mirsarai and Sitakunda upazilas from the city, bank officials, and employees of government and private institutions stood for hours without getting a vehicle. Although some were able to go to the institution, they had to pay 300 taka for the fare of 50 taka.
It was seen on various parts of the road that many people, unable to find a car, had gone to their destination on foot. School and college students were also suffering the same. The hustle and bustle of people at the bus stands in various markets was palpable. When we went to the Bariyarhat Municipality, the largest bus stand in the upazila, we saw a crowd of passengers on the highway. But no bus had left.
Borhan Uddin, a passenger who left his house to go to Chittagong, said, "Today is the first day of the week, I have to go to the office. I could not find any CNG autorickshaw after leaving my house. Later, I was going to this place with this CNG at four times the fare. At one point, some transport workers stopped the vehicle in the Bariyahat area and forced me not to go. A terrible situation is being created in the country in the name of the movement. Uttam Kumar Bariya, a head teacher going from Mirsarai to Baradarogarhat, said that I came to the highway at 9 am to go to school and at 11:30 am I could not find any vehicle." Finally, he got into a pickup and left for Ganthavay.
Rafiq Uddin, president of the Chittagong District Bus Minibus Human Hauler Owners Association, said, "Car movement has been stopped keeping in mind the issue of safety. Where the police were supposed to provide us with security, on the contrary, we have been attacked. Keeping these issues in mind, we have declared an indefinite ban on car movement on the roads as per the central decision."
In this regard, Mirsarai Police Station OC Sairul Islam said, "We express our sympathy for the suffering of the people. We also urge all students and workers to have faith in the government. We hope that everyone will become tolerant soon."