Sagar Biswas :
Massive corruption and irregularities galore in road transport system while the regulatory body of country’s transport sector Bangladesh Road Transport Authority [BRTA] has been patronising the mismanagement instead of gripping the ill-practice.
Questions have been raised about the role of BRTA following the Saturday night’s fatal series accidents on Bangabandhu Bridge where nine persons, including the son of Land Minister Shamsur Rahman, were killed due to ‘reckless and irresponsible” driving.
Several officials of concerned agencies, including traffic department of police, have alleged that most of the country’s drivers have no proper training how to run vehicles in climatic obstacles, such as dense fog, incessant rain or heavy wind.
About 61 per cent drivers got license without appearing driving test while bribe is paid for driving license varies from Tk 100 to Tk 7,000 depending on the type of the license. Not only that, 54 per cent drivers are running vehicles with their expired licenses, they further said. When asked, Zahangir Alam, Assistant Director of BRTA [license and fitness], said, “We issue licenses to the drivers those have passed the driving test. We also do not issue fitness certificate to unfit vehicles. The allegation of taking bribe for giving fitness certificate and driving license is false.”
“Fifty per cent of driving licenses carried by drivers across the country are fake and prepared through irregularities. A section of staffs of BRTA are providing drivers with fake licenses. The government lost about Tk 40 crore as revenue in the last eight years due to corruption at BRTA,” said a senior official of Road Transport and Bridges Ministry requesting not to be named. Chairman of BRTA Md Nazrul Islam, however, refrained from making any comment over the irregularities and mismanagement despite repeated attempts last night.
According to a recent TIB study, a service recipient has to pay up to Tk 50,000 as bribe during registration depending upon the type and value of the vehicle. In Dhaka Metropolitan Area, a bus owner has to pay bribe of Tk 10,000 to Tk 300,000 as entry fee for each bus. The vehicle owners have to pay bribe up to Tk 20,000 to BRTA personnel and brokers to get route permit and transfer of vehicle ownership documents.
When contacted, Shamshul Kabir, Assistant Director of BRTA [Registration of bus, truck and covered van] told The New nation on Sunday, “We have authority to cancel registration of vehicles, but in fact the number of cancelled vehicles is very few. Only 10/12 vehicles’ registrations were cancelled in last two years due to fault in import document.”
“None was cancelled for unfitness. We can’t cancel registration for oldness, if the papers are okay. There may be some fake fitness papers, but you have to prove it first,” he said.
On the other hand, Sanaul Hoque, Assistant Director [registration of private car, micros bus and jeep] said, “We usually give registration to brand new vehicles. We cancel registration if the vehicles are unfit, or without any route permit. We have no authority to stay or halt registration.” Replying to a question, he said, “No registration was cancelled in last two years in my department.”
There are widespread allegations that BRTA has no effective role in controlling motor vehicles while the vehicle operators are extracting up to 75 percent extra fare from passengers. It has also no workable audit system to check out how motor trade unions spend their collected subscriptions.
The illegal subscriptions are collected at entry points of district and divisional towns and the amount varies between Tk 10 and Tk 100 from five to twenty points of each trip of a commercial vehicle, the TIB findings also had said.
It said an owner has to pay up to Tk 2,000 each month to transport owners’ associations depending on the type of the vehicle. Besides, Tk 10,000 to Tk 50,000 is to be paid to transport owners’ associations for setting up counters in short and long routes of commercial vehicles. It is also alleged that no effective supervision, monitoring and accountability system exists for BRTA staff.
