Home ›› 22 May 2023 ›› Opinion
The Road Transport and Highways Division is going to send back old and rickety buses and trucks to scrap yards. It declared it a few days back. Is it epiphany? Is it bluster? I don’t know what triggered it to take the decision? What move it has taken has been taken many times in the past. It is being said the move is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. Is it so? We have heard, on numerous occasions, such roar of taking actions to curb accidents.
The only difference this time is the Road Transport and Highways Division has prepared a guideline to do the job. I am very much doubtful about the implementation of such a guideline as those who are in charge fall back on the same old story. This time Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman is even more determined. He has gone one step ahead of others. In a do-or-die display of attitude he said no matter if the guideline was approved he would drive outdated vehicles off the streets.
This time the roar has turned into a defeating roar indeed! Every time this kind of initiative that starts with a lot of cacophony either stumbles or loses steam midway. What happens in between is it swells pockets of a section of law enforcers. Unfit vehicles are taken off the roads for a certain period of time. Pictures of crowds spending agonizing hours at different points on the city streets for buses after and before office hours make headlines in newspapers.
The drama continues until the curtain falls on the stage with thunderous claps. The agonizing hours of spellbound audience come to an end. Turned-off lights are relit illuminating the hall room. The audience heads home only to forget what they have watched. In the same fashion old and worn-out vehicles come back on to the streets. As usual commuters are seen swarming around crammed and cramped buses to manage an empty place only to stand let alone sit on a seat. The same old pictures of commuters standing on footboards, hanging from door handles and even on rooftop of buses shuttling home can be seen everywhere.
As usual an unlucky man or woman luckily hits the headline after he/she falls off the bus as his/her grasp on the door handle slackens. The next day a pedestrian dies after being caught in the labyrinth of chaotically placed buses. He tries to maneuver himself through the narrow space between two buses as they jerk back and forth to show passengers that they are just ready to set off before others. Caught in the rat race of shabby buses run by untrained drivers, helpers and conductors the man is sandwiched. He too goes for the headline in newspapers. Even before the newspapers publish the news the unlucky man luckily hits the scrolls of television channels.
Just a few days back a father and his son were returning home from hospital in Patenga of Chattogram. Little did they know what would befall them within a span of a short time. They were on a rickshaw. A container from a lorry fell on them. The report said the shipping container tied improperly to the lorry snapped. The heavy container pinned both father and son to the ground. Two lives came to an end before their recorded times. The corner castings of the container weren’t properly bolted causing the accident. Who to blame for the tragedy? The driver was arrested and that’s it. I am not demanding the hanging of the driver. I don’t think it is only the bus driver or helper responsible for accidents. Is it then the well-endowed transport sector responsible? Who is to take the responsibility? Who to protect human lives on streets? The question remains unanswered. People boil with rage helpless and undone.
Such a rage found an utterance in the student movement in 2018. Surging and seething students came out on to the streets to protest the deaths of their fellow students on the Airport Road in the capital on July 29, 2018. The road safety movement of students snowballed into something much bigger protest. They even went so far as to demand the state be mended. But it too couldn’t compel the government to take any initiative. At that time, we heard many in the government say the movement was an eye opener for them. Yes, it opened their closed eyes only to shut them again. They turned a blind eye to the popular demand of students.
Five years after the student movement the department concerned of the government opened their eyes again. It prepared a guideline to curb accidents. We are yet to come to know about what the guidelines are. If the guidelines fail to address the issue of public sufferings after unfit vehicles are taken off the streets by introducing alternative transports it will surely to come back to square one
Accident after accident happen claiming lives of people of all ages. It is known among the knowing who is responsible for the loss of precious human lives in accidents. Unfit and unwanted vehicles, untrained drivers, uneducated helpers and unbridled competition are only a few to mention. The transport sector has turned into a cesspool of corruption. The departments and ministries concerned are oblivious to what is going on in the transport sector. Removing unfit and age-old vehicles from the streets is just the tip of the iceberg. Our experience says such move ends before it begins.
Experts are saying this move will ensure safety on roads if it is properly carried out. The draft guidelines on the move to remove the old and unfit vehicles are yet to be fully published. Whatever information we have from the newspaper reports it seems the old story is going to be retold. It is only my assumption. I hope that my assumption will not come true. I hope that it will be the other way round.
The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at maksud.i.rahaman@gmail.com
