Scores of commuters, including children, had to wait for hours on the streets due to a sudden transport strike in the port city yesterday.

The strike, announced by a faction of transport owners on Wednesday, caught many city dwellers unawares yesterday morning.

Chittagong Metropolitan Gono Paribahan Malik Sangram Parishad, an association of transport owners, called for the strike with demands including flexible issuance of driving license, keeping three-wheelers off the streets and lifting bars on old vehicles, Belayet Hossain Belal, president of the association, said.

Meanwhile, people of all walks of life, especially school students whose annual exams are going on, found to their dismay that they had no means of reaching their destinations on time.

Sanja Ahmed, a class-II student, was on the verge of tears by the side of a road in Amtol area around 10:00am. With her exam about to start in minutes, she was worried that she would not be able to reach school, some eight km away, on time.

Working people were seen walking in their hundreds on the streets of the port city in the morning. Many said they did not know about the strike.

Exploiting the scarcity of transport, rickshaw pullers and CNG-run auto-rickshaw drivers, asked for exorbitant fares.

Two students of Haji Mohammad Mohsin College said they had to pay more than twice the usual auto-rickshaw fare to get to the college.

Buses owned by people, who do not belong to the association, were on the roads, but charged passengers according to their whims.

Photo: Star

“The strike was called by a group of owners. They did not talk to everybody and did not wait for everyone's approval,” Manjurul Alam Manju, president of Chittagong District Paribahan Malik Group, said.

Belayet Hossain Belal, who called for the strike, denied the allegations. “We raised those demands to concerned authorities on November 25 with an ultimatum till the end of the month. This strike was called for an indefinite period as the ultimatum expired.”

Some other demands by transport owners calling for the strike included stopping vehicle requisition by police, filing false cases, creating new routes, and making Bangladesh Road Transport Authority office free of middlemen.

Police said they arrested several “vandals” for trying to cause anarchy.