A section of unscrupulous rickshaw owners are running their battery-run-cum-pedal powered rickshaws in the capital flouting ban.
Hundreds of unlicenced three-wheelers of this kind ply across the capital with little or no resistance from traffic staff.
The government imposed a ban on manufacture and import on the battery-run three-wheelers as they consume a lot of electricity for rechargeable batteries.
These auto-rickshaws like the pedal-powered ones also add to the traffic congestion.
In most areas of the capital, particularly of Mirpur and Uttara, the auto-rickshaw drivers run their vehicles in their own sweet way.
Having no valid licence and road permit, these vehicles are running under the very nose of the authorities concerned.
Sources said some leaders of Rickshaw Owners’ Association had link to the ruling party.
Md Harun – a motorised rickshaw driver in Mirpur, said he hired the battery-run rickshaw from the garage in the same area.
“I pay Tk300 per day for hire of the rickshaw, but the rent was Tk320 when it first hit the road. Traffic staff do not say anything if we drive it,” he said.
Meanwhile, residents of Mirpur and Uttara residential areas alleged that the battery-run rickshaw drivers drive their vehicles recklessly, often causing accidents.
Abidul Islam, a resident of sector 13 in Uttara Model Town, said: “Some leaders of the ruling party’s associate organisation Shromik League are involved with the motorised rickshaw trade. For this reason, traffic police do not prevent them from plying in the road.”
Contacted, Dhaka North City Corporation high officials admitted that the plying of motorised rickshaws across the city streets were illegal, but he failed to say about the exact number of the rickshaws moving across the capital.
Deputy Chief Revenue Officer of the city corporation, Md Mohsin Ali claimed that Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) conducted drives against the illegal battery-run rickshaws in the city and traffic staff seized them almost every day.
He said a joint effort of DMP would carry out such drive to seize all such unlicenced rickshaws from the city’s Mirpur and Uttara areas ahead of the upcoming Eid ul-Azha.
The campaign against the illegal vehicular operation would continue till the malpractice came to an end, he vowed.
