For the first time in the ongoing fiscal year, the government has started disbursing money from the “unexpected management fund” to enhance security for trains and buses.
The Ministry of Finance yesterday disbursed Tk13 crore from the fund in favour of the Ministry of Home Affairs for deploying over 8,000 Ansar and VDP members at 1,041 places along railway tracks for 45 days.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday gave consent to the disbursement of fund, which will be used to pay the Ansar and VDP members for their additional duty.
On January 12, a total of 8,328 Ansar men were deployed at 1,041 risky points in 40 districts to protect railway’s property.
An official of the Finance Division said: “The main problem with spending money to control unrest is that authorities can never be sure how long it would last. They can only allocate money from the budget for a specific number of days. The disbursement cannot go on forever.”
Last week, the government deployed 12,000 Ansar and VDP members at various points on a number of roads and highways around the country to ensure security for people in the ongoing blockade and hartal.
An inter-ministerial meeting at the Railway Ministry recently identified a total of 993 points on various roads and highways; 216 of those points have been identified as very risky.
The increased pressure of passengers because of unsafe highways have pushed railway’s punctuality to an all-time low of 40%, meaning that only four out of every 10 trains are leaving on schedule.
Usually, at times of peace, 64% of the express trains and 80% of the intercity trains leave on schedule, but things started going haywire since the BNP-enforced transport blockade and intermittent hartals began on January 6.
Railway Minister Mujibul Haque refused to admit that the time-table of trains has collapsed, but said more law enforcers will be deployed along the tracks if needed.
Over 300 buses and trucks have been burnt and 500 vehicles vandalised since the blockade began more than a month ago. At least 15 transport workers were killed and another 56 injured in arson on vehicles around the country.
However, the railway have not been immune to sabotage by blockade supporters. Over the last month or so, several trains have detrailed around the country because pickets have removed the fish-plates from the tracks.
In the most recent sabotage, pickets hurled three petrol bombs at a train of the Moitree Express coming to Dhaka from Kolkata in India yesterday afternoon. However, that attack did not cause any major trouble.
The Home Ministry has already sought Finance Ministry’s consent for the release of Tk20.8 crore from police’s “own food fund” for paying the daily snack allowances to the law enforcers who have been working overtime.
When things are normal, authorities arrange meals on catering trucks or ferry services for on-duty police staff. But, this system has not been working since the blockade began because law enforcers are having to do many more hours of duty on top of their regular roster.
The Home Ministry has also sought a special allocation of Tk83.5 crore to pay overtime allowance and cover for fuel costs because of the additional patrolling duties in the ongoing political programmes.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), whose members have also been maintaining law and order on the field, sought Tk4.80 crore for the additional duties performed by its personnels.
The head of unexpected management fund is a certain amount of money kept aside from the budget every year to tackle any kind of untoward situation such as natural disasters.
In the last fiscal year 2013-14, the government disbursed money from this fund for enhancing security during the pre-election violence.
