Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) on Sunday said that passengers had become hostages to the transport owners and workers for a long time, but there is no initiative to relieve them.
Addressing a press conference, General Secretary of BJKS Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said that the newly enacted Road Transport Act 2018 would serve the interests of transport owners and workers only, and not of the general people.
Mozammel said these at a press conference organised by BJKS at the Mukti Bhaban in the city’s Paltan area.
“Although the government seriously accepted the demands raised by the students during their movement for road safety, it was not reflected in this law,”said Mozammel.
As the influential transport owner and labour organisations were involved in formulating the law, it has become a document of their interests, he said.
There is no clear direction in this law to stop passengers’ harassment, rent anarchy, plying of the unfit vehicles on the
streets and various irregularities in public transport. And, as such it will be hard to make the BRTA and traffic department corruption free, he claimed.
The proposal to set up a separate agency for investigation into road accident cases was also ignored in this law, Mozammel further said.
“Despite the presence of a registered passenger welfare association in the country, the authority didn’t take their opinions into consideration while drafting the law,” the secretary general said. “The law does not represent the demands of the general passengers.”
Road accidents have taken into an epidemic form with an average of 50-64 people getting killed and 150 people becoming injured per day, Mozammel alleged.
“If the rule of law is not established on the roads, this epidemic will not stop,” he added.
In order to ensure the representation of passenger organisations alongside owner and labour organisations, Mozammel urged the government to include the rights and demands of the general passengers in all areas, including public transport, regional transport committees and road safety committees.
He demanded a direct intervention of the country’s President in the proper implementation of the Road Transport Act 2018.
Road Safety Foundation Vice-Chairman MA Hamid Sharif, BJKS central leader Mohiuddin Ahmed, Ziaul Haque Chowdhury, Amanullah Mahafuz and lawyer Zayedur Rahman also spoke on the occasion.
