Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Road accidents are rising alarmingly in the country causing massive loss of lives. But the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is yet to come up with any specific plan to avert the situation.
At least 36 people were killed and over 50 others injured in the country’s one of the deadliest recent road crashes in Natore that shocked the whole nation.
BRTA, the regulatory body to control, manage and ensure discipline in the country’s road transport sector and road safety, has failed to show its expected performance in reducing such accidents mainly due to corruption and inefficiency of its officials, sources said. They alleged that BRTA has now turned into a virtual ‘den’ of corruption as officials of the state-run body allowed unfit vehicles to ply run by the low-skilled drivers on the street across the country in exchange of money. ” These drivers run the vehicles recklessly violating traffic rules resulting in frequent road accidents, they added. “Fitness certificates of vehicles are also being issued without physical presence of any transport violating rules and regulations,” a senior BRTA official told The New Nation on Sunday on condition of anonymity.
According to a statistics of BRTA, the number of registered motor vehicles is now more than 21 lakh in the country. Of them, more than 3 lakh vehicles are plying on the streets without having fitness certificates.
Although the number of total vehicles is 21 lakh, the BRTA has so far issued 14.31 lakh driving lisences that means about 6.69 lakh drivers are on the wheels without licenses or having fake lisences.
Referring to the Natore road accident, the BRTA official said, the fitness certificate and route permit of Keya Paribahan’s bus was not updated while the vehicle registration of the Othoi Paribahan bus was fake.
“Brokers and middlemen are active at the BRTA offices across the country under active patronisation of ruling partymen. They are influencing the BRTA officials in indulging irregularities in the process of issuing driving lisences, vehicles registration and fitness certificates,” the official said.
When asked, he said, the authorities of BRTA have a list of its corrupt officials but no action has been taken against them for reasons unknown. “Road accident is going on unabated across the country due to reckless driving,” film star and ‘Nirapad Sarak Chai’ Chairman Ilias Kanchan, told The New Nation yesterday. He said, being the regulator, the BRTA cannot escape its responsibility to ensure the road safety. But, still it has not come up with any preventive measure to stop deaths on roads.
He also said the Motor Vehicle Acts-1983 needs to be updated bringing changes in some of its provision so that the officials of BRTA could be made accountable. There is a need to ensure punishment of the drivers for their reckless driving which cause death of hundreds of people across the country.
Another senior BRTA officials said, “We are working with limited manpower and this is why performance of the organization is not up to the mark.”
He further said, according to revised organogram, the number of sanctioned office staff is 815. But 479 staff members are working presently. “Still there are 336 vacant posts and without fulfilment of the remaining posts, the task of ensuring the country’s road safety is quite impossible,” he added.
Nazrul Islam, Chairman of BRTA, could not be reached for comment despite several attempts on his cell phone.
