Communications minister Obaidul Quader on Saturday said that people of the country want to see how much the government has had implemented so far; which it had promised in its election manifesto. “People don’t want to see any colourful promises. They would assess the previous promises. There is no point of making any new promise. We would do whatever is possible for us to implement the earlier ones,” he said.
Quader told the reporters while visiting Dhaka-Mymensingh highways at Chandana area under Gazipur district. He further said, “It is the last year of the government. There is no scope to feel complacent. A tumultuous political wind may blow in any direction, which is very difficult to comment on.”
The minister claimed that the condition of roads across the country at the present time is far better than that of previous governments. “I would not claim that the discipline of roads is okay. Still thousands of rickshaws, battery run rickshaws and illegal vehicles are plying on the highways. Though the number of easy bike has been reduced but these are plying on the regional highways,” he added. He urged the local administration and police to get rid of illegal occupation including vegetable markets from roads and highways to ensure free movement of vehicles.
The minister also said that many of the roads do not have the capacity to withstand the weight of overloaded vehicles and the overload control stations need to be made effective in this regard.
“We would set up new overload control stations to reduce extra pressure on roads,” he added. He also said that political influence deters action against the illegal vehicles and encroachment.
“This is the election year. So the people’s representatives do not want to put pressure on the encroachers of highways. They think that if they take action against them, they would lose votes. But they should realise that their action against these few people will make the majority happy. It is a difficult and challenging task to accomplish without political cooperation,” he observed.
-With The Independent input
