The BNP says its finds the prime minister’s recent directive to impose toll for using national highways as an anti-people decision.
“It’s totally an anti-people step and passengers will ultimately be losers if the government collects toll picking people’s pocket,” Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told a media call at the party headquarters on Friday (Sept 5).
During the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said toll should be collected from the long-distance vehicles that ply national highways.
The country’s highways are unfit for smooth journey, the BNP leader claimed before adding potholes and craters have developed on the highways enormously due to the so-called development work of the government.
Amid the dilapidated condition of the highways, time and money of the passengers will be wasted besides, the bus fare will go up if the toll-posts are set up on the highways, added Rizvi.
According to the senior BNP leader, around half a million minutes will go away from people’s lives if the toll posts take only five minutes in collecting the toll from each bus only on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway.