Editorial
Poor commuters at the transporters' mercy
Some ways must be found to alleviate their plight
ONE is deeply touched and perturbed at the sight of an elderly father with a sick grown-up daughter on his laps as depicted in a four-column photo news item that appeared in this newspaper's back page yesterday. Within the frame of one photograph are captured four extremely tell-tale images -- the helpless father, his daughter lying prostrate, a metallic glimpse of two empty auto-rickshaws and their indifferent drivers. Their indifference to the oldman's request for a ride to a hospital stemmed from the fact that the fares they charged from the old man having being clearly beyond his means he was unable to pay.
We don't know if, in the first place, the old man, found on a pavement near the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital couldn't get access to medicare at that hospital and which is why he wanted to take his daughter to another hospital. If that is what happened, then it will be our first cause for regret.
Commuting in Dhaka city for most citizens is full of woes and hardship, and instead of decreasing these are constantly on the rise with ever new irritations nettling ordinary commuters. Auto-rickshaw drivers and taxi operators hardly ever go on meter, charging fares, sometimes three or four times the fixed rates. They have no concern for the urgency of a commuter anxious over reaching a hospital in time with a patient. In fact, they even try to exploit the situation Even the rickshaws which are still used by a large number of citizens are asking arbitrary fares. Various transport operators are in a race for hiking fares. The authorities must step in to control the frenzy in the interest of the vast majority of citizens.
We wonder, if some help-line could be extended by roving patrol units from some altruistic NGOs, voluntary social organisations or some wing of the ministry of the social welfare to the stranded patients and their anxious relatives. Perhaps, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) could be attracted towards this modest agenda.
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