Dhaka City Corporations repeatedly conducted drives to evict the hawkers from the footpaths and other forbidden areas but they returned to the spaces within hours. The eviction drives rather contributed to increase in the toll amounts and rendered goods and articles of hawkers damaged but did nothing more. The street hawkers come back to occupy the footpaths.
The same is the case in respect of rickshaws. The drives against rickshaws faced same fate. Some people are paid and gradually the problems of too many rickshaws return with renewed force. They show no cavity to resolve the problems. The capital city is dirty and chaotic. The Mayors are happy just for holding VIP positions and enjoying privileges. They don’t have to prove themselves successful.
All these genuine actions are changed farcically under the influence of corruption in the city corporations and other powerful elements in the government. The people find that there is a government which is ineffective against illegal money making business. The illegal casino business by the members of the youth front of the government party was for gambling with the huge illegal money. And the torture centres at public universities run by students’ wing of the government supporters were for terrorism and for the same money making business.
It is not denied that when the crisis of corruption and crime became exposed in their terrible forms the government had no other choice but to go for legal action. The system of corruption and crime is so widely organised that the justice system cannot remain untouched by the corruption. The police were also used for winning the elections.
The judiciary is under pressure from the executive branch. No law is necessary to start hundreds of baseless criminal cases because of the insistence not to grant bail. The lower courts cannot be trusted that even in bailable cases where granting bail is law the bail is shamelessly denied saying more shamelessly that the court is under pressure from ‘above’ — meaning the Law Ministry.
It should be clear to anybody unless one is blinded by selfishness it has to be admitted that the government is restrained neither by people’s election nor by law or justice system.
So we have a government which can also be termed as a role model government for corruption and failure. There is no section of the government which is unaffected by corruption and incompetence. Corruption is seen as the business of the government. Successes of development politics are shown on papers prepared by bureaucrats by suppressing the failures of a weak government.
The city corporations failed to contain dengue epidemic. It had no medicine to deal with the Aedes mosquitoes or the dengue patients. The Health Ministry has been found filled with corruption and was unprepared to take responsibility for the care of the dengue patients. They affected people died in hundreds for shortage of medicine. The Ministry concerned bought unnecessary medical equipment for their personal benefit by taking commission.
The roads of the capital city are in terribly damaged conditions. Not only that the roads that were drugged in by corporations for one reason or the other have been left in that condition. The city people often register their protest about the inconveniences but the corporation people do not care to take notice of such complaints. They spend the people’s money but the people are ignored as nobody.
