The National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways has demanded an operation against all types of illegal vessels, including monitoring and controlling the movement of sand-carrying boats (bulkheads) to avoid waterway accidents. For this, the organisation has demanded conducting mobile courts across the country immediately, said a press release on Monday.
The president of the organisation, Mohammad Shahid Mia, and its general secretary Ashis Kumar Dey made the call in a statement to the Ministry of Shipping, Department of Shipping (DoS), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), River Police and Coast Guard.
The leaders of the civic organisation called for the involvement of district administration and the district police for the public interest.
In addition to punishing sailors without documents, the statement also demanded that vessel owners be brought under the law for employing sailors and masters without papers.
Expressing deep concern over regular waterway accidents and sinking of passenger boats in different parts of the country due to bulkheads, the statement said that although the movement of bulkheads is prohibited from sunset to sunrise, hundreds of bulkheads are moving at night under the nose of the administration.
Citing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Shipping, the leaders of the national committee to protect shipping, roads and railways, said that although the number of registered vessels is 15,000, there are at least 85,000 vessels of various types across the country. Among 70,000 illegal vessels, the number of bulkheads is at least 6,000.
According to the statement, out of 15,000 registered boats, regular annual survey (fitness test) is done only for 8,000. As per the knowledge of the concerned officials of the DoS and BIWTA, the remaining 7,000 unfit boats are plying freely. But the authorities concerned don’t take action against those for unknown reasons, the statement said. As a result, accidents occur often.
Eight people died when a passenger-carrying trawler sank after being hit by a bulkhead in the Padma river in Munshiganj on Saturday night and three passengers died when a waterbus sank after being hit by a bulkhead in the Buriganga river at Keraniganj in Dhaka on the night of July 17.
