For passengers traveling through inner or main routes of the district, it has become a normal activity to make risky journey. Getting a seat inside the bus is never a desire for the passengers- because that would mean seeing day-dreams. This bus en route to Jagadi of Harshahi from Sindhuli was fully crowded inside, on its door and over its roof. Comfort is not a priority - all they care in making this precarious journey is reaching home, safely.
Carrying passengers beyond the seat numbers is a punishable offence as per existing public transportation law. But public transport operators in Sindhuli have been flouting this law by carrying at least double the seating capacity inside the bus and an equal numbers of passengers on their roofs. Passenger's woes don't end at making precarious journey. They are constantly harassed by the bus staff for transport fares- who most of times are found to charging exorbitant fares. Instead of being discounted for taking the risk of traveling on roof tops and by hanging on bus doors, passengers are hassled by the conductors to pay unreasonable amounts.
Officers at Bhiman Bazaar Police station were not taken back by this overloaded bus. Instead of implementing laws and bringing such vehicles to book, they remain mute spectators. "No one is concerned about passenger safety and the way passengers are treated by the pubic transporters," Somnath Dhami, a passenger traveling to Hatpate VDC from Sindhuli said. "The police remain mute to these open violations of transportation laws and the way public safety is jeopardized by public transport entrepreneurs," he said. "Who is going to stop these (public bus owners) from playing with the lives of passengers, if not the concerned authorities," he said expressing disgust towards the irresponsible behavior of the police officers at the police station.
With the bus moving further inroads, and with no more police or any authority checks, the bus boarded on more passengers on its roof top and the same cautionary message - "Don't trip down. Please hold on tight to the bars," was announced again by the bus staff.
The scenario is same in all inner routes and main routes of the district. Many over crowded bus as this one ply through the dilapidated and scantily graveled inner roads of Sindhuli every day. Such scenes are common along the Hatpate-Tadi, Chakmake and Marind routes.
It has become customary for the male passengers to make the journey by sitting on the bus roof. "When we book tickets, it is commonly understood that that it's for a ride on the roof," said a male passenger from Bhimsthan. "Men are never given a seat inside the bus and there are times when even female passengers have to make journey on roof," he added. Because of scarce number of public vehicles that ply along the rural routes, passengers are forced to make such risky travels.
The shortage of vehicles is due to transportation syndicate imposed by local public transportation operators. Their monopoly in the district restricts new entries of vehicle in the routes and even restrict public transportation vehicles from eastern parts of the country that ply along major route of the district to pick up passengers from Sindhuli. This leaves the locals with no choice but to make the risky and uncomfortable journeys.
Some locals take the negligence of the police as sign of a secret understanding between them and the public transport entrepreneurs. "You don't need much brains to understand that the police has been neglecting this open flouting of transportation laws because of their secret deals with the transport operators," a local from Bhiman Bazaar said. "Passengers are piled on bus roofs from the bazaar itself but police officers don't take any action," he said in an attempt to justify his accusations. However, Inspector Rajendra Thapa from District Police Office claims that cases of public transporters carrying excessive passengers have been reduced significantly in the recent days. "Such cases have become rare and if we find any bus doing that we have been taking immediate actions against it," said Thapa.
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