A mobile court drive to inspect vehicle fitness certificates and driving licenses sent two in the capital to jail, fined scores of others and created a scarcity of public transportation that made strike conditions seem pleasurable.
Thousands struggled to catch buses or human hauliers yesterday because of the scarcity of vehicles on the road due to the BRTA, Home Ministry and Road Transport Ministry combined drive.
The BRTA enforcement department co-ordinated check points at three points in Dhaka, at Kakrail, Kakoli Circle police box and near Gabtoli bus terminal, supported by mobile courts under three executive magistrates of Dhaka division.
Traffic police caused large bottlenecks in the capital as they pulled cars over in the middle of traffic to look over their inspection certificates.
Bijoy Bhushan Paul, BRTA director (enforcement), confirmed that the Dhaka Metropolitan BRTA enforcement department filed 77 cases and imposed a total of Tk95,000 in fines.
Two people were sent to jail for 15 days each.
The Dhaka district magistrate filed an additional 16 cases and fined offenders Tk19,800.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) and Bangladesh Roads and Transport Authority (BRTA) yesterday commenced drives against unfit vehicles in Chittagong city’s Nimtola, Bahaddarhat and City Gate areas, our Chittagong correspondent reports.
The BRTA lodged 23 cases against unfit vehicles, fining Tk37,000 to unfit vehicle owners and seizing five more vehicles. CMP lodged 67 more cases, said CMP (Traffic) sources.
Unfit vehicles kept off the roads in fear of the drive, making things difficult for commuters in the port city.
CMP Additional Commissioner (Administration, Traffic and Finance) AKM Shahidur Rahman said the drive ran from 10am to 5pm with the CMP and the BRTA separately conducting drives with magistrates of the district administration.
“The drive will continue,” he said, adding that commuters’ inconveniences would be short-lived.
Commuters, especially students and garment workers, were compelled use CNG-run auto-rickshaws, battery-run rickshaws and peddle-rickshaws charging a scarcity premium because of the lack of buses and human hauliers on the roads.
A Dhaka commuter, IT professional Ashraful Islam, trying to get to work by hanging precariously from the door of a bus told the Dhaka Tribune that even during hartals things were not so bad because people knew in advance and could plan accordingly.
He said the government ought to give people advance notice before undertaking such a disruptive action.
Public transport vehicles take shelter from drive Unfit public transport vehicles that were avoiding the streets and possible fines, meanwhile, were hidden away in the open fields of Dhaka’s residential areas.
Banasree residential area in the capital’s Rampura’s Meradia area has become a depot of vehicles without proper fitness certification. The drivers and conductors, temporarily off work, passed their time playing cards under the shade of trees.
Similar congregations of dilapidated vehicles, hidden away from the view of the mobile courts, were to be found in the capital’s Uttarkhan, Pubail, Lalmatia, Badda, Mathertek areas.
A driver of a local service on the Rampura-Uttara route said the drive was nothing but an effort to put public transport workers out of their jobs.
Unless law enforcement and BRTA officials had a change of attitude, he said, the permit crisis would not change.
“Officials and vehicle owners alike benefit from keeping incomplete paperwork because the official process of receiving fitness certification is costly to owners and officials make money taking small bribes during random checks on vehicles,” he said.
Article 152 of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1983 says if a fitness permit is not found to be updated, a fine of Tk2000 as well as a three-month jail term may be imposed, Tareq Hasan, executive magistrate of Dhaka, explained to the Dhaka Tribune at Kakrail check point.
The main requirements to pass a fitness check are that no changes have been made to the original design of the vehicle, the brakes and gears function properly, the lights function properly, the vehicle does not emit black exhaust, and that it is properly painted.
Few public transport vehicles meet these requirements, sources said.
The president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik Samiti [Bangladesh Road Transport Owner’s Association], Khandaker Enayet Ullah, confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that he had received a letter from the BRTA to join the programme.
Enayet criticised the BRTA saying passing leaflets about, plastering walls with posters and scaring people with mobile drives would not solve a problem essentially created by the BRTA.
As far as valid driving licenses are concerned he said, “The BRTA has said it had provided 1.4 million driving licenses but there are roughly 2.1 million registered vehicles. Are the remaining 700,000 vehicles not supposed to move on the road?”
Enayet said: “It was the officials’ duty to check vehicle fitness but owners sometimes got the certificates without any examination from the authorities, so it is hard to solve this problem. This drive will only cause short-term fear among stakeholders which is why some are not operating their vehicles today.”
The BRTA confirmed that as of October 25 this year, 313,000 vehicles all over the country were operating without any fitness certification. In the capital city alone, there are 93,604 vehicles without any fitness certificates.
It said there are 2,105,140 registered vehicles in the country. Excluding motorcycles, 974,735 are required to have fitness certificates, meaning a third of all vehicles requiring certification were operating without fitness certificates.
Of the 835,812 vehicles in Dhaka, 93,604 are are not fitness certified.
According to the law, there are at least 30 types of technical and physical tests that the vehicles need to pass for fitness certification. However, no equipment is used for the purpose. The vehicles are just examined by sight.
The vehicles are supposed to be taken to the BRTA office to be examined and then certified. The reality is most buses, trucks, and other public transport vehicles are issued fitness certificates without even being brought to the BRTA office.
BRTA Chairman Nazrul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune he had heard such complaints before but had not received any written complaints. If he did, he said, he would take action as per the law.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader visited Manik Miah Avenue to raise support for the drive and told journalists that the drive would be a success.
He said it was high time unfit vehicles were taken out of operation or brought up to standard.
