The rage in which a biker, Shawkat Ali, set fire to his motorcycle on Badda Link Road in the capital last Monday is just one example of the boundless anarchy and irregularities in the road transport sector. The incident is tragic. Biker Shawkat Ali had a sanitary ware shop. When his shop was closed due to coronavirus, he bought a motorcycle for Tk 80,000 and took up ride sharing. Drivers have to pay 25 per cent of the rent to the ride sharing company. Shawkat Ali thinks this is an injustice.
He carried out ride sharing without any apps. Many bikers do so and are harassed on the roads. A few days ago, the traffic police filed a case against Shawkat and fined him Tk 1,000 as he was not operating under any ride sharing company. On Monday morning, a police sergeant took his bike papers on Badda Link Road. Though Shawkat requested not to file a case, the traffic sergeant took the documents away and refused to return the papers. Shawkat then set fire to his bike in protest.
Badda police said that Shawkat did wrong by setting his bike on fire. But there are allegations against the traffic police for stopping cars on the road and taking thousands from the drivers every day, intimidating them with lawsuits. This is even a bigger crime.
The road transport sector in the country is full of chaos. The Prothom Alo reports, "Roads, vehicles, drivers — everything in chaos." Although the government enacted the Road Transport Act in 2018 in the face of student movement to restore order on the roads, it could not implement it in the face of opposition from transport owners and workers' organisations. The Awami League government has made the law. The government-backed employers 'and workers' organizations also went on strike against the law.
In 2018, the number of vehicles without fitness in the country was 499,033. The number of unlicensed vehicles and illegally licensed drivers has increased in the last two years. According to BRTA sources, there are about 2.8 million driver's licenses for different type of vehicles.
Among them, a person with the same licence rides a motorcycle and drives other vehicles. Apart from them, the number of drivers is about 2 million. The number of registered vehicles in the country was about 3.8 million. In other words, 1.8 million vehicles are running with 'fake' license. While some of them deliberately use fake licenses, most are forced to do so.
Those who are in charge of controlling the traffic on the road, overlook the irregularities and negligence of the organisation and attacks the poor bikers and auto drivers. Instead of bringing order to the road, one incident after another is happening. Filing lawsuits against drivers or embezzling cash by intimidating with lawsuits is a regular picture.
বিআরটিএতে একটি চক্র গড়ে উঠেছে, যারা লাইসেন্স দেওয়ার নাম করে চালকদের ঘোরায় এবং ফায়দা আদায় করে। BRTC has formed a 'syndicate' who make money by issuing drivers licences in exchange of 'favours'. The road transport minister himself has repeatedly expressed his displeasure over the corruption and irregularities in the BRTA. But he did not take action against those responsible. When will BRTA wake up?