“An influential section of the administration has become desperate to prove this government a failure. If this irresponsible group is not identified and stern action taken against them immediately, dark days await us ahead.”
Lakshmipur-1 (Ramganj) BNP lawmaker Shahadat Hossain Salim wrote this in a post on his verified Facebook account on Sunday night. He made the post regarding the long traffic jam and public suffering on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway.
In his Facebook post, Shahadat Hossain Salim wrote, “Since Friday night, the roads have remained paralysed by a severe 32-hour-long traffic jam stretching from Chandina to Ashariarchar in Narayanganj on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway. Passengers suffered indescribable and immense hardship. A patient died after getting stuck in an ambulance in the long traffic jam, while many expatriates missed their scheduled flights because they could not reach the airport on time.”
Shahadat Hossain Salim said National Parliament Whip ABM Ashraf Uddin Nijan held a virtual meeting with the deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and officials of the highway police and Roads and Highways Department in Cumilla and Narayanganj to investigate the cause of the suffering. He said, “I had the opportunity to sit beside the whip and closely observe the entire meeting. But I was extremely surprised and deeply disappointed to see that, despite such a major incident and the immense suffering of the people, there was not the slightest sense of remorse or accountability among the responsible officials.”
Shahadat Hossain Selim said Whip ABM Ashraf Uddin Nijan, who is responsible for coordinating development activities in Cumilla, Chandpur and Brahmanbaria districts, expressed extreme anger and annoyance over the situation. Salim wrote, “He (the whip) said it was extremely important to issue a public notice in advance to inform people before carrying out repairs on the bridge. If prior publicity had been conducted through newspapers, TV tickers and social media, passengers could have used alternative routes and this terrible situation could have been avoided.”
In his Facebook post, Shahadat Hossain Salim described the lack of coordination and accountability among the officials concerned as worrying. He wrote, “It is now time to take exemplary punitive action against the officials concerned without delay for causing public suffering and committing the offence of extreme negligence.”
Shahadat Hossain Salim was the chairman of Bangladesh LDP. Before the 13th parliamentary election, he dissolved his party and joined the BNP. In another Facebook post last August, Shahadat Hossain Salim wrote, “The associates of the ousted autocrat are still lurking in every corner of the administration. They are creating obstacles at every step of the government’s development activities. They are attempting to thwart all our efforts.”
Asked about the Facebook post, lawmaker Shahadat Hossain Salim told Prothom Alo, “Some officials in the administration are involved in a conspiracy to make the government fail. I have repeatedly raised the issue publicly to alert the government. The government should now take these allegations seriously and hold those concerned accountable.”