Home ›› 29 Jan 2023 ›› Front
Two government agencies related to road transport under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges are reportedly at loggerheads over formulating a framework for determining the vehicle life cycle as well as scrapping old and unfit vehicles.
Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) prepared two separate drafts and sent those to the ministry recently for scrutiny and approval. DTCA called it a guideline while BRTA has named it a policy.
Interestingly, DTCA is pointing the finger at BRTA, saying the latter has prepared an almost identical document by refining the former’s guideline, giving no proper credit.
Besides, BRTA officials did not inform DTCA of formulating a separate draft while attending a stakeholder meeting on the draft called by the latter in October last year.
The ministry has now formed a committee to review both documents and prepare the final version by merging them, sources said.
Besides, the aggrieved DTCA has decided to send a letter to the ministry protesting against BRTA’s action to produce an identical document and seeking a remedy, DTCA sources claimed.
Shabiha Pervin, executive director of DTCA, told The Business Post they had sent their draft to the ministry in November last year after consulting with stakeholders.
“I heard that BRTA has sent a separate draft. But I am not exactly informed of what is going on,” she said.
How it all started
DTCA sources said the agency started preparing its draft on the decrepit vehicle management/vehicle scrap guideline 2022 on July 15 last year. After completing it, they placed it at an internal meeting on August 2 for opinions.
Incorporating the opinions, a complete draft was sent to different relevant offices, including BRTA, requesting their opinions. A follow-up letter was also sent to the same authorities on September 12.
“The first draft was also sent to the ministry. In fact, the ministry was kept updated about all developments on formulating the draft from time to time,” said a DTCA official who was closely involved in the draft formulation.
DTCA held a stakeholder meeting on October 3 where a BRTA representative was present among others. “At that meeting too, BRTA did not inform us that they were also working on the vehicle scrapping policy,” the official said.
Incorporating the stakeholders’ opinions, the final draft was sent to the ministry on November 20.
At the monthly coordination meeting of the Road Transport and Highways Division chaired by its Secretary ABM Amin Ullah Nuri on December 15, the DTCA guideline was discussed.
BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder told the meeting the guideline had been prepared by DTCA.
Meanwhile, BRTA completed a separate draft titled “Vehicle Scrap Policy 2022” on December 13 and sent it to the ministry. However, DTCA officials came to know about the matter this week when officials of both agencies were invited to a meeting at the ministry.
The meeting decided to form a committee comprising officials of BRTA, DTCA, and the ministry to scrutinise both documents. After going through the BRTA draft, DTCA officials observed both drafts are almost identical.
“They [BRTA] could have just given their opinions to us, and we could have added those to our draft before sending it to the ministry. There is no point in preparing a separate one,” said the DTCA official.
He said DTCA would urge the ministry to scrutinise both drafts to find out the plagiarism.
Md Monirul Alam, deputy secretary at the ministry’s BRTA branch, said a committee has been formed led by the ministry’s Joint Secretary Md Anisur Rahman. “The committee will check both drafts and prepare a final one by merging them.”
Asked whether two agencies can work on the same matter, he said both have the authority to prepare drafts.
“After we check the drafts, we can detect the overlapping parts. We will also decide which parts should be kept and scrapped. The committee has been formed to do that.”
