THE nation is now probably set to have another political episode being acted in the burnt unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Reports in a national English daily on Friday said, some people showed up there on Thursday which is highly restricted to visitors with TV gears and apparently started shooting a film suitable for documentary in the cover of highlighting woes of burn sufferers now fighting between life and death in the hospital beds. The TV crew at first produced them as Bangladesh Television (BTV) journalists and cameramen and even did not bother to take permission from the hospital authorities. They did not take the protective apron and mask. The team started filming the patients in the hospital beds who were moaning in pains and crying for life. They were asked to cry loud. It was a highly repugnant act and risky as well to the patients for exposure to new infections. It was indeed a dastardly criminal act but to those who went for filming the patients it appears to be highly exploitative both politically and also inasmuch as it can fetch handsome financial benefits to them. Later on questioning as the news report said, the TV crew said they are indeed not BTV men. The team leader now claimed he is a journalist and showed his business card as a senior editor/ author and film director of Dainik Ei Bangla, Shaptahik Durniti and Friday Review. He said he was doing it on his own but he would hand over it to the state run BTV for telecast. It appears that the DMCH burn unit has already turned out to be a highly political hotspot with VIPs, political figures and journalists visiting the place everyday. In most cases they are after political dividend. They are crowding inside, talking with patients, showing their face to TV cameras and creating chaos. They are hampering treatment. The situation turns to be worst whenever fresh arson victims arrive at the burn unit.It showed the brutal inhuman face of people who speak for the victims but they are really out to exploit their sufferings shedding crocodile tears to achieve dirty goals. We are appalled to see how beast a human being can be when a woman with the TV crew posed with an arson victim with glycerin applied in her eyes to fake tears. She showed that his sufferings have made her cry. We strongly condemn this treatment of the burn patients at the hospital beds. It is indeed a shame on the face of the entire nation. We can’t understand how these people can enter the DMCH burn unit without proper permission of the hospital authorities, least to speak of filming of the pains and sufferings of the patients with mischievous end. We are really sorry at the same time for the sufferings of the innocent victims of petrol bombs thrown by miscreants in running buses and other transports. This is collective failure of the nation as it is failing to protect its citizens who are falling victims to political power struggles now raging this country. But we can’t allow playing foul with the sufferings of burn patients and we urge the DMCH authorities to strongly restrict entry of unwanted persons to the hospital section to save the privacy of the burn unit patients. There can’t be any compromise. The hospital authorities can’t overlook their responsibility. Purabi-Kalshi road needs urgent repairTHIS daily on Thursday reported that the Purabi-Kalshi connecting road in Mirpur is now in an extremely bad shape due to numerous potholes causing immense suffering to commuters. The report has blamed heavy traffic pressure resulting from indifference in maintenance of the 1.4km road; which is moreover worsening on almost daily basis. The road also connects the 1.8km flyover from Matikata of the area to Airport Road through Zia Colony easing up traffic movement in the city’s northern region. But the entire objective of the new road and the flyover has almost been compromised so far in absence of effective supervision and repair of the road forcing commuters to go by alternative roads covering long distance.The Purabi-Kalshi road condition has meanwhile further deteriorated with the unfinished widening work of the road which was originally taken up by the Dhaka Northern City Corporation (DNCC) in February last year before the T-20 World Cup cricket tournament. The project was taken up at a cost of Tk 115 crore including installation of a sewerage line by the Local Government Engineering Division and the army was entrusted with the project implementation. It saw impressive progress before the tournament but then remained almost abandoned making the entire road highly dilapidated and not smoothly usable to motorists. Meanwhile, authorized encroachers who were evicted with their shops from the roadsides made their way back using their local political backing and it is making the project implementation further difficult. As the situation now evolves, commuters while plying vehicles face several under-construction culverts causing staggering tailback on the road. Even, once a car gets stuck up, it cannot turn back without any opening on road divider at reasonable distance thus adding to spilling up of traffic congestion. More than 3000 vehicles now use the route, though the number was supposed to be double. Moreover the Matikata-Airport flyover was supposed to run over 10,000 vehicles daily but the actual number of users now is around 5,000 as many people are avoiding the Purabi-Kalshi road leading to the flyover. As the situation suggests, the DNCC authorities and its project implementation agencies are not showing enough attention to finish the widening work of the Purabi-Kalshi road to create a comfortable running condition of the road, although the implementation time schedules have already run out. They are also failing to repair the potholes on the road adding to the woes of the local residents and those who use this road section for a short-cut journey to other parts of the city. We urge the authorities concerned to take an urgent look into the matter.
