When a special drive against unfit vehicles and unlicensed drivers is taking place across the country, police in Gazipur district are carrying out their daily responsibilities using the shabby vehicles driven by fake licence holders in their areas.
A section of road transport owners in Gazipur are building a particular type of vehicle, popularly known as Leguna, using the chassis of unfit or invalid microbuses, re-attaching body parts as they like, and then putting them back on the road for public use, said Alamgir Hossain, resident of Salna area in Gazipur.
“These vehicles are being rebuilt at a few workshops beside Dhaka-Mymensingh highway near Salna Rail Overbridge. They do not have number plates, nor do they carry the plates of the microbuses they are built from,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
“The vehicles are used by both the common people and police,” Alamgir said, “and are driven by drivers with fake or no driving licence. Some of them do not have head lights , let alone the signal lights.”
Asked about the re-assembling of Leguna, Masud Alam, assistant director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in Gazipur, said building such vehicles using scrap microbuses was illegal.
“However, in case of vehicles in good condition, colour change and any other renovations can be done, but that requires BRTA permission as well,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
When contacted, several police officials claimed they were forced to use Leguna for police activities because their stations lacked adequate number of police vehicles.
Rezaul Karim Reza, officer-in-charge of Joydebpur police station, said his police station needed around 12-14 vehicles to carry out daily activities properly, but it only had two pick-ups.
“Due to this vehicle shortage, we have to use 10-12 Legunas for police activities every day. This does not happen in anywhere else in the world,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Asked if he knew about Legunas being unfit, he said: “I do not care whether they are fit or unfit. We have severe deficit of vehicles, so we are using those Legunas,” the OC said.
Reza’s claim was reiterated by the OCs of Kapasia, Tongi, Kaliganj, Kaliakair and Sreepur police stations when the Dhaka Tribune contacted them, who all said the number of vehicles at their stations was grossly inadequate.
The Dhaka Tribune talked to Leguna driver Sentu Miah, who said he had bought a microbus and had his Leguna built out of it at a workshop in Salna.
“I had to invest around Tk5 lakh to get the microbus and make the Leguna. Now I drive on the Chandna-Mirzapur route,” he said. Sentu does not have a driving licence, but that is not a problem, he said.
“I give a token of Tk160 to the local transport leader Sultan Uddin Sarkar everyday. He takes care of police, so I do not have to face any problem on the road. Besides, I work for police round the clock every 7-15 days, so they do not say anything to me about my vehicle’s fitness, or my lack of documents,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
But when the Dhaka Tribune asked the police officials about it, they denied the allegation.
“We do not take any token money from such vehicle owners or drivers,” the Joydebpur OC claimed.
Sultan, the transport leader made similar claims when the Dhaka Tribune contacted him.
“We have to lend around 70-80 Legunas to police for use every day. But none of those vehicles are unfit. And I do not collect money from the Leguna drivers for police either,” he said.
This correspondent visited the workshops in Salna where the mechanics were seen working on Legunas.
The owner of one of such workshop, Jewel, said decrepit microbuses and pick-ups are brought in to the workshops from Habiganj, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Chittagong and many other areas.
“We buy the vehicles for Tk4-5 lakh and then break them down to build Legunas. Turning a microbus into a Leguna costs around Tk40,000-50,000, and for a pick-up it takes around Tk70,000-80,000,” he said.
However, when asked, Jewel could not show any document that permitted him to build Legunas.