Protests spread to more districts

Students on Sunday continued their protests across the country rejecting half bus fare for them in all metropolitan cities announced by the transport owners.

The protesting students demanded the government issue a gazette notification announcing half fare for them in all public transports for 24 hours across the country.

Protests were held in Dhaka, Chattogram, Barishal, Mymensingh and Gazipur, among other places, on Sunday, as the students also demanded road safety and justice for those killed in road accidents.

New Age correspondent in Chattogram reports that Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association secretary general Khandakar Enayet Ullah at a press conference at Chattogram Press Club announced the decision of charging the students half fare in all metropolitan cities 

The decision, which is conditional, will be effective from December 11, he said.

The association earlier on November 30 announced half fare for the students in buses running inside Dhaka city from December 1.

It said students would be charged half fare on showing identity cards between 8:00am and 8:00pm on weekdays.   

The half fare will not be effective during seasonal holidays of the educational institutions, the association said.

Enayet Ullah said in Chattogram that the conditions would remain the same for other metropolitan cities also. 

Soon after the announcement, students in Chattogram gave a memorandum to road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader through the deputy commissioner of Chattogram.

Students in the capital continued their protests against the mismanagement and corruption in the country’s transport sector through organising a cartoon exhibition at Rampura and holding a symbolic funeral procession and protest rally at the same place.

The cartoons in the exhibition highlighted the issues  related to half bus fare for students on all public transports, safety for women on public transports, and safe roads.

The exhibition was held from 12:20pm to 1:10pm.

The students in Rampura chanted slogans demanding the implementation of their 11-point demand for safe roads.

Khilgaon Model College student Sohagi Samia said that they have added a few additional demands to nine-point demand made during the road safety movement in 2018.

The additional demands include the appointment of two drivers and two assistants for each bus, a maximum of six-hour workday for the drivers and their assistants.

They also demanded appointment letters for the transport workers and cancellation of the contractual appointments for such workers.

Samia said they would wear black masks on Monday to press home their demands.

New Age correspondent in Dhaka University reports that agitating students on Sunday afternoon staged a symbolic funeral procession demanding justice for those killed in road accidents.

Students began their symbolic funeral procession protest with a coffin at Shahbagh crossing in the capital.  Police denied them taking a position at the crossing.

The Shahbagh police station officer-in-charge Sheikh Mohammad Kamruzzaman told New Age they would not allow anyone disrupting traffic movements.

 

‘If it is necessary, they [the students] will complete their programme by standing at a place but not disrupting the traffic activities,’ he said.

The protesters later marched to the Teachers Students Centre of the university, where they also held a short rally at the base of Anti-terrorism Raju Memorial Sculpture.

The students later submitted a memorandum to railways and shipping ministries after submitting a similar memorandum to education and road transport ministries last month.

State University student Inzamul Haque Ramim said they would hold a candlelight vigil and a music show at the Central Shaheed Minar on Monday.

Raihan Uddin, president of Chattogram city unit Samajtantrik Chhatra Front demanded the transport owners withdraw their condition for half bus fare, reports New Age correspondent in Chattogram.

“We demand that the government issue a gazette notification ensuring half-passes for students on all public transports across the country,’ he said.

Students formed a human chain and staged a sit-on programme at Chattogram’s Wireless Circle area at 12:00pm following Saturday’s fatal train accident in the city, which killed three people, including an HSC student. 

New Age correspondent in Barishal reports that students from different educational institutions, including Barishal University, Government BM College and Govt Barisal College blocked the road and held a protest rally at the main point of the city between 11:00am and 1:00pm demanding safe road and half fare for students.

The students showed a symbolic dead body as part of the protest depicting those killed in road accidents.

The leaders of the Barishal district unit of the Bangladesh Chhatra Union expressed their solidarity at the event.

At one point of the protest, when the representatives of local administration and police requested them to clear the road considering public suffering, the students left the place giving a 48-hour ultimatum.

Meanwhile, a group of students, parents and workers formed a human chain at Gazipur Chowrasta from 10:00am to 11:00am, demanding half fares on all public transports for students and workers through a gazette notification.

A group of students also brought out a protest rally in Mymensingh city, demanding road safety and half fares for students.

Progressive Students’ Alliance and Socialist Students’ Front in two separate press releases demanded half fares for students on all public transport across the country through issuing a gazette notification.

National Democratic Front in a press release demanded the same.

The demands of the students include road safety, ensuring speedy justice, including adequate compensation, for all the students and other people who have been killed in road accidents, half fare for all students in all sorts of public transports through a gazette notification and safe journey for women and girls on all public transports.

Their demands also include the construction of bus stops and parking spaces in a planned way, strict implementation of the relevant laws, legalisation of all drivers through training, creation of a modern and effective traffic system and ensuring accountability of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority through proper monitoring.

The road safety protests saw a renewal this year after 2018 a day after Notre Dame College student Nayeem Hasan was killed by a running Dhaka South City Corporation dustcart in the capital’s Gulistan area on November 24.

The demonstration spread after a Secondary School Certificate examinee of Ekramunnesa Boys High School, Mainuddin Islam, was crushed to death by a bus of Anabil Paribahan on November 29 night.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/156543/protests-spread-to-more-districts