The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has directed the owners of CNG-run auto-rickshaws to calibrate meters recently, three months after the price-hike of compressed natural gas.
Meanwhile, the commuters are experiencing acute suffering.
The government on May 16, following the hike in CNG prices, raised the CNG-run auto-rickshaws fare to Tk 7.50 a kilometre from Tk 7 each kilometre, and kept the minimum fare unchanged at Tk 25.
It also increased the waiting charge for the auto-rickshaws to Tk 1.30 per minute from Tk 1.25.
The CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers, however, continue charging extra flouting government orders.
The owners and drivers complained that the government did not discuss with them on calibrating meters.
Commuters in the Dhaka city said that the drivers were charging at their will.
'Today I went to the prime minister's office from Shanker bus stop with Tk 150, as the driver refused to go on meters,' said Dhanmandi resident Shamim Akhter.
Bidhan Chandra Saha, a Mirpur resident, said at present the minimum fare of CNG-run auto-rickshaws had become Tk 120 for each trip.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority engineering department director Mohammad Saiful Hoque told New Age on Wednesday that the authority recently held a meeting with the owners of CNG-run auto-rickshaws and ask them to calibrate meters.
'The owners will have to calibrate meters with their own initiatives,' said the director, responding to a question whether the authority would monitor the meter companies that are recognised by the government to calibrate the meters.
He also warned that the authority would take stern actions against the owners who would keep defective metres.
Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto-Rickshaw Business-men Owners' Association president Barkatullah Bhulu said that they met the government officials on May 28 to discuss fixing fare but the officials did not give them any directive to calibrate the meters during that time.
'In the second week of August, the BRTA gave us instruction to revise 13,000 CNG-run auto-rickshaw meters within August 15 to September 20,' he said.
Barkatullah Bhulu said they had already started the work and added that every meter company would calibrate the meters that they revised earlier.
Dhaka District 4-Stroke Auto-Rickshaw CNG Drivers' Union general secretary Shahidul Islam, however, said that they were yet to get any instruction from the government authorities to calibrate their meters.
Source : New Age
