Ferry allegedly held for 2 hours for MP Hannan Masud, passengers suffer

There have been allegations that the ferry was held up for two hours for MP and Jatiya Nagorik Party (NCP) leader Abdul Hannan Masud in Hatia, Noakhali. This has caused suffering to commuters heading to work after the Eid holidays.

The incident took place on the ferry Mahananda while it was anchored at Hatia's Nalchira Ghat on Sunday night. It is learnt that MP Hannan Masud from Noakhali-6 constituency also had an argument with the passengers at that time.

It is learnt that the ferry Mahananda reached Nalchira Ghat at 5:45pm yesterday. It takes an hour and a half to load and unload and move vehicles. Accordingly, the ferry was supposed to leave for Chairman Ghat sometime before or after 7pm. But the ferry left around 9pm. Although bookings were taken at the counter for other vehicles, including motorcycles, from the afternoon, the cars were not allowed to be picked up after the ferry was unloaded. When asked why the ferry was not being unloaded even after the specified time, the ferry people told the passengers that the MP will come, and then the ferry will be unloaded.

The passengers said that if they cannot reach Chairman Ghat, Sonapur and the district town Maijdi on time and board the bus, it will not be possible to reach their destination by night. They will have to sit at the bus counter all night and will not be able to go to the office on Monday morning.

When asked about this, Ferry Mahananda Master Mozammel Haque denied the two-hour delay. He said, "Our ferry reaches Nalchira Ghat at 5:40pm. It takes an average of 40 minutes to unload and load. The authorities told us that the MP will come, and there will be a little delay in the ferry leaving. So we did not allow the cars to be unloaded at first. The passengers got excited about this. Later, after 8pm, we left for Chairman Ghat. It is 45 minutes or an hour late compared to the usual time.’

There was no response to calls to MP Hannan Masud’s mobile number. However, his followers claimed on social media that MP Hannan Masud had gone to inspect the ferry ghat to monitor the allegations of irregularities.