The mandatory Covid-19 health-safety guideline was grossly violated by both transporters and passengers on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people left Dhaka for home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha.
But health experts, in the meantime, have expressed concern over an upsurge in infection of Delta, the highly contagious Indian variant of the virus.
Alongside district buses, city services were also found leaving Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Saidabad bus terminals with passengers at their full capacity, discounting safety guideline amid lax monitoring.
The health guideline clears it that a bus or train will carry passengers at half capacity.
Such relaxation has been panned by experts, warning that it would further worsen the situation fuelled by the Delta mutant as Bangladesh witnessed the highest 231 Covid deaths on Monday.
More than 1.1 million has so far been infected and the death toll from the virus has passed 18,000 here.
Meanwhile, officials said some highways and river routes witnessed a rush of passenger buses and cattle-carrying trucks the same day, creating jams in many districts, heightening home-goers' sufferings.
Passenger bus, car, microbus and motorbike aside, people were also seen travelling in pickups, unloaded cattle trucks and other vehicles, risking a rise in infection of the virus further.
Kamal Hossain works at a photocopy shop, but he said he would be rendered jobless from next month amid a drop in his employer's business.
"I'm leaving with concerns of joblessness and starvation amid another round of strict lockdown after Eid," said Mr Hossain who was travelling on Thikana Paribahan, a city service.
Farid Uddin, a Faridpur-bound passenger, lamented three times higher the bus fare this time at Tk 350-400 from Aricha Ghat from Gabtoli.
The fare is Tk 100-140 per seat in normal time.
Md Jewel, a driver of Thikana Paribahan, said their buses were plying highways to make some money for spending during the next lockdown period.
Most of the city bus operators have stopped paying their staffers amid transport shutdown for lockdown, thus forcing them to take some risk during this relaxed period, he added.
The FE found major highway bus operators like Hanif, Shyamoli, Nabil, Desh and Shohag maintaining the directive on the number of passengers for carrying.
But most of the services failed to maintain schedule.
Nabil Paribahan manager Hafizur Rahman Sweet said gridlock formed on Tangail-Sirajganj highway until Monday morning, causing two-four hours' delay for the buses to return to Dhaka from different districts.
Although traffic was smooth on Bangabandhu Bridge and Elenga Bypass on Monday, crowds of Eid trippers were seen at Aricha, Shimulia and Banglabazar ferry terminals on the day.
Hundreds of vehicles were seen waiting to cross the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway at noon.
Hasara highway police station officer-in-charge Afzal Hossain said hundreds of vehicles were waiting on the expressway for ferry crossing.
Surprisingly, passengers were also hardly seen maintaining physical distancing. Many were seen without masks in and around ticketing booths on the day.
Against this backdrop, Prof Dr Rashid-E-Mahbub, a physician and health rights activist, said the key risk of such health-safety negligence is to boost infection.
City-dwellers are going to their roots and thousands of people are entering Dhaka city for cattle trading, mostly neglecting health-safety guideline, he cited. And there will be a direct contact among 45-50 million people who will gather for Eid prayers in mosques or Eidgahs countrywide for the festival.
If physical distancing is not maintained in all social or religious gatherings and the health guideline is neglected, Dr Mahbub apprehends, things might turn severe in cities, suburbs and villages.
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