The authorities are too forceful in asking people to pay taxes or face punishment, but none cares to do their duties for looking after public convenience. In the capital city Dhaka, the people are living with all kinds of denial of services. Most of all, only few roads including the VIP road are usable for Dhaka dwellers and traffic logs are also most intense on these few roads compelling the commuters to be locked in cars and buses for hours. But who cares? Traffic police are too anxious to allow VIP cars to pass blocking movement of vehicles in most relaxing way without showing concern for the general public. Critics say that under the government of voter less election, the officials have realised that they have no accountability to the general public. They must serve their superiors. The general public do not see what progress the country is making for them. Taking up new projects when old projects are in rotten conditions means new opportunities for corruption.Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) statistics shows that in 2003 there were 303,215 registered motorised vehicles in the city which rose to 741,547 by 2012, a growth of 145 per cent. During the same period, the number of private cars increased by 121 per cent. Private cars occupy more than 30 per cent of the city road spaces but carry only 5.15 per cent of the total passengers. Of the remaining 95 per cent passengers, rickshaws are used by 38.3 per cent, pedestrians 19.8 per cent, public buses used by 30.1 per cent and auto-rickshaws 6.5 per cent, revealed a recently carried out study. The manually-operated and battery-operated rickshaws, three wheelers, push-carts and rickshaw vans compete with the motorised vehicles worsening the traffic congestion. Only 352 buses out of the total fleet of 973 of BRTC which should have been the main public transport operators are running in Dhaka. A total of 115 buses have been leased out to private operators while many buses always remain out of service due to poor maintenance.The situation becomes unbearable when there is movement of very important person (VIP) as big teams of traffic police become very busy so that they (VIPs) can have an easy ride. But in the process common people suffer more as they have to remain stuck up in traffic jams for hours.Traffic mess in Moghbazar and Mouchak, where the system is in shambles because of the slow under construction flyovers, speaks a lot about indifference on the part of the authorities to woes of city dwellers.Agencies like Dhaka City Corporation, RAJUK, Ministry of Communication, Ministry of LGRD, BRTA, and Traffic Police Department are involved in the transport system of Dhaka creating a problem for coordinated planning, implementation and management. This slum-like urbanisation, where RAJUK failed to play its significant role, is one of the major causes of the present traffic havoc, experts in the field observed. Government authorities and city officials have forgotten to be conscious of their duties to the people. The people pay for services to be rendered to them. This cannot go on. The people are losing patience to find their money being stolen when they suffer miseries on the roads even in the capital city of Dhaka.
