Drive to compel the use of foot bridge opposed
Civil society groups held a demonstration on Monday demanding restoration of sidewalks and reintroduction of zebra crossings in the city for pedestrians’ safety instead of compelling people to use the foot bridge.
They said that Dhaka was possibly the lone city in the world to deny pedestrian rights.
They also demanded action for stopping parking of cars on busy roads in tow or three rows including at Motijheel Commercial Area for hours together.
The situation for the children, people with disabilities, senior citizens, patients and pregnant women, they said, was simply appalling. How these people could be expected to use the foot bridge, they asked.
Speakers said that the government took an unrealistic policy to launch a drive to compel people to use the foot bridge from November 1, in the name of easing the city’s traffic jam.
They said that after quietly removing all the zebra crossings in the city the government took the decision to launch a drive to compel people to use the foot bridge only to please the rich who use cars.
What about the common citizens who have no alternative to walk to go to their destinations.
The planned drive, they said, would reflect the government’s inability to appreciate the ground realities in the country that requires ensuring pedestrian rights on the footpaths.
The reality is, they said, that the pedestrian can use no sidewalk in the city.
The sidewalks throughout the city, they said, are under illegal occupation of shopping malls, influential house owners and vendors.
They said that the government also looked the other way when cars are parked in two three rows on busy roads including at Motijheel Commercial Area or construction materials block sidewalks and even main roads.
They demanded widening the sidewalks and freeing them from encroachers and powerful grabbers. They also demanded steps to stop the illegal use of sidewalks for parking cars, keeping construction materials and dumping litter.
They called for planting trees on the sides of footpaths and to ensure adequate lighting on the roads.
One cannot avoid noticing how all the sidewalks in the city had been encroached upon with the government remaining looking the other way.
Why the government does not restore the sidewalks to the pedestrians first, they asked.
Civil society activists formed a human chain before the press club at the behest of Nirapad Development Foundation to press the demand for pedestrian right to safe road crossing.
They said that since 2005 government efforts to ease traffic congestion in the city proved counterproductive.
NDF chairman Imroj Sayeed Rana, Maruf Rahman of Work for Better Bangladesh, Unnayan Dhara Trust member secretary Aminur Rasel, Citizens’ Rights Movement secretary general Tushar Rehman and Utpal Das of Sammilita Jaladhar Andolon.
