AS per a local news agency, the newly promoted Minister of Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan on Monday said people across the country have celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr peacefully and safely, though the number of road accidents and casualties with fire incidents turned the festivity gruesome for some. The Home Minister is satisfied that no untoward incident like theft, mugging and robbery have occurred in the city except two or three incidents, but many whose relatives and peers were caught in accidents due to inept drivers and faulty highway engineering and stayed hours after hours in gridlocks on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highways while rushing to their homes will not be satisfied with the government. During Eid holidays, at least seven to eight million people rush to their village homes, nevertheless the largest festival of the nation mostly brings fatal accidents and incidents as the authority concerned remain nonchalant about human safety.Fatal road accidents this year killed at least 17 people and injured 65 others at Mulibari level-crossing on the western side of the Bangabandhu Bridge approach road in Sadar upazila early on Sunday. Local police said the place is the most dangerous for vehicles as the highways here are curvy and narrow and they have asked the authorities to set up road dividers for three years with no results, resulting in a skyrocketing number of accidents and casualties. The yearly monsoon accidents in Chittagong due to mud slides and wall collapses this year killed six people, including three siblings, and four others were injured in separate incidents of landslide and wall collapse, triggered by torrential rains for the last couple of days. In both cases, probe bodies were formed, though everyone knows the fate of probe bodies. Meanwhile, a fire broke out at a factory of Akij Footwear at Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday afternoon. The fire fighters doused the flame after a three-hour frantic effort. On Monday, around a hundred shanties were gutted in a huge fire which broke out at a slum in Merul Badda in Dhaka. The fire originated at a house and spread quickly to the surrounding tin-shed shanties. Eleven units of fire fighters fought the fire at the slum located by a jheel (water body) in the area. No casualties were reported in the incident. All the accidents happened either due to negligence of the masses or due to the ineptness or indifference of the government. The mud slides during the rainy season is a common phenomena in the hilly areas of Chittagong and the local administration occasionally conduct drives to evict the settlers without arranging their alternate rehabilitation which results in re-construction of the structures under the influence of the local musclemen who have political clout. Of the fire incidents, a rigorous awareness programme is needed to educate the public about the dangers of using electricity and the need to keep flammable materials in safe areas. This time serious casualties have been avoided in river journeys. That is a happy improvement.
