Shipping minister Shajahan Khan on Sunday alleged that drivers face difficulties on highways because of extortion by the police.
‘There are allegations that drivers face difficulties on highways because of extortion by the police, who file cases against them if they refuse to pay any money,’ Shajahan told the 34th meeting of the Advisory Council of National Road Transport in the communications
ministry.
Presiding over the meeting, the communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, directed the law enforcement agencies to be relentless in apprehending the people speaking on cell phones while driving.
The directive came against the backdrop of the deaths of 40 persons, including 38 schoolboys, in the traffic accident at Mirsarai in Chittagong on July 11 that took place while the driver was speaking on his mobile.
The communications minister warned that the people who use cell phones while driving would face punishment and their mobile phones would be confiscated.
‘If anyone is found talking
on his mobile phone while driving, the law enforcers will not only fine them but also seize their sets,’ Abul Hossain told reporters after the meeting.
He also warned that legal measures would be taken against the drivers of private cars, jeeps and microbuses for not fastening their seatbelts.
The minister also said that directives have been issued to the authorities concerned to take effective steps to ease the nagging traffic congestion in Dhaka and major business centres elsewhere in the country before the holy month of Ramadan, which will begin in the first week of August.
Shipping minister Shajahan Khan, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the communications ministry Mujibur Rahman and representatives of road transport owners and workers, along with others, attended the meeting.
The decisions to ensure road safety, taken in the last meeting of the advisory council on 21 September, 2010, have not been implemented so far, according to officials.
The driver of the ill-fated truck, which was carrying the schoolboys in Mirsarai, was driving recklessly and talking over the cell phone when the tragic accident took place on July 11, according to the police and onlookers.
Shajahan Khan expressed concern over the non-enforcement of the road safety measures that include ban on the movement of non-motorised and unauthorised vehicles like Nasimon/Karimon on highways and removal of illegal structures and roadside markets.
He said it was very sad that the advisory council held the meeting after a gap of almost one year though it was supposed to sit once every three months. The communications minister assured the labour leader-turned shipping minister that the advisory council would sit regularly from now on.
Shajahan asked for effective measures to rein in the highway police personnel who allegedly extort money from drivers.
After a Cabinet committee meeting on law and order on July 13, home affairs minister Sahara Khatun said that the government was seriously thinking of launching mobile courts to ensure strict enforcement of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, with a particular eye to checking the use of mobile phones by people while driving.
She said that it is illegal to use mobile phones while driving.
The cabinet committee asked the law enforcement agencies to ensure discipline in the transport sector by strictly enforcing the relevant laws.
-With New Age input
