M M Jasim :Almost all the foot over bridges in the capital remains occupied by anti-social elements, including vendors and beggars making those embarrassing for the use of pedestrians. Some of the bridges have virtually become safe haven for drug peddlers. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) hardly take any step to free these bridges from the illegal occupants, it was alleged.While visiting some of the foot overbridges on Thursday, it was found that the pedestrians were shy to use the bridges.”Our responsibility ends as soon as an overbridge is constructed and opened to public,” said a senior official of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) seeking anonymity. He said it is the duty of the police to keep the foot overbridges free from hawkers, beggars and anti-social elements.When asked, officers at Tejgaon Police Station said they have recently evicted the hawkers and beggars from Farmgate overbridge. But shop-owners in the area dubbed it as eyewash. S M Shibli Noman, AC of DMP, Ramna Zone, told The New Nation on Thursday that, “We are constantly trying to improve the situation on the foot overbridges by frequent raids and increasing police patrol.”Asked why beggars and vendors come back soon after eviction, he said, the current situation is better than the previous times.Moslehuddin Ahmed, Joint-Commissioner of DMP (Traffic North Zone) told The New Nation that the on-duty policemen are trying to make the bridges pedestrian-friendly. The concern authority should set up adequate lights on the bridges so that the criminals do not able to make them safe haven, he said. Sources said, there are 38 foot overbridges in the capital. Most of them are occupied by hawkers and beggars. It is alleged that the vendors who run their business on the New Market and Farmgate overbridges pay toll to the police and extortionists regularly. Talking to this reporter, the hawkers said the toll rate on the bridge is higher than the footpaths.However, police denied the allegation, saying that they conduct raids on the overbridges to keep those free from illegal occupation.On the other hand, the hawkers said they pay toll to the “line-men” of the police and extortionists. “The linemen prefer the vendors on the overbridges as they are ready to pay more money,” said Habibur Rahman, a rubber band vendor beside the New Market foot overbridge.Mahbub Alam, a pedestrian, said, the foot overbridges are not just drug dens, they frequently use those as public toilets littered with human refuse.Zakir Hossain, a pedestrian, said, “I have to take risk of crossing the busy road along with my wife and children in the evening, as I do not want them to be exposed to such an unpleasant environment.””These overbridges seem to have been built only for the hawkers, beggars and sex workers. People cannot walk on them,” said Kafil Uddin, a pedestrian while crossing the road instead of using the Banani foot-over- bridge on his way to Banani from Gulshan 2.”Two or three incidents of mugging or pickpocket regularly occur near the Science Laboratory overbridge,” said Arman Ahmed, a salesman of a store at New Elephant Road.He, however, said the incidents of mugging have decreased recently following frequent police raids and patrol of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
