Md Mahabub Alam :
The Department of Shipping (DoS) under the Ministry of Shipping has been facing troubles to perform its activities due to shortage of manpower, sources said.
The Department of Shipping has four surveyors, five inspectors and one lawyer for dealing with inspection, supervision and legal matters.
That is why operation of the water transports, which are unfit and unregistered, could not be stopped. Many cases, filed earlier for naval accidents or violations of law, therefore, remain under trial for long.
The chaos on river routes that includes frequent accidents and violation of navigation rules happen due to overlooking the necessity of increasing the strength of DoS, which is to ensure the safety of passengers’ lives and to effect maritime laws.
The DoS sent a proposal to the Public Administration and the Shipping Ministries three months ago for more manpower, including surveyor, inspector and lawyer. But it is uncertain whether the proposal will be accepted or not, said officials of its Prosecuting Division.
Not only that, some sections of the Inland Shipping (Amendment) Ordinance-2005 restrict the DoS effectiveness.
Some 50 cases were lodged with Marine Court for naval accidents from 2010. Of them, only nine cases were tried while 41 are under trial, according to the information of the Department of Shipping, located in the office of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport
Authority (BIWTA) at Motijheel.
Some 835 cases were filed with the same court for violation of inland shipping law between 2013 and July 2014. Of them, 581 cases were disposed of and 254 cases are waiting for disposal.
The representatives of Police, BIWTA and DG of DoS filed the cases.
Some 10,143 registered water transports, including passengers carriers, cargo vessel, ferry, oil tanker and sand carrier cruise into the both river and ocean routes.
Many registered transports are unfit to sail, said an officer of the department wishing not to be named. Yet those are doing business.
Pervin Sultana, Prosecuting Officer of the DoS, told The New Nation that the existing Inland Shipping Ordinance should be amended because some of its sections do not have provisions of adequate punishment for the offenders.
She stated that five years imprisonment and a fine Tk one lakh is the highest punishment in case of any naval accident.
The owner can be brought to the book for overloading if he or his representative is on board at the time of passengers getting into the vessel. Otherwise, owner will not be responsible for, she adds.
In case of signal violation, the violator will either be awarded three years in jail or Tk 30,000 fine.
For head-on collision between vessels, punishment to offenders is only two years imprisonment or a fine Tk 30,000.
Section No-52 of the Ordinance provides Tk five lakh compensation from the owner to all the victims or their family members in case of an accident, she said, adding that the manpower shortage is a major factor performance of the activities of the department.
A senior officer of the DoS, who preferred not to be named, said only a handful of offenders have so far been awarded highest punishment i.e. five years imprisonment.
