Speakers at the CIRDAP Auditorium on Wednesday for a discussion during River Security Week 2019 decried severe irregularities in the inland water transport sector.
MP Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton, chief whip of the ruling party in the parliament, said: “How many rivers do we have now? How many ports and jetties? Half of these places have been appropriated as warehouses.”
The ruling party’s chief whip was the chief guest at the program, where he expressed his surprise at the wildly disproportional ratio between registered inland ships and pilots.
MP Liton said: “There are only 225 pilots for 26,000 ships. How is that even possible?”
Renowned columnist Syed Abul Maksud, a speaker at the program, said the ruling party has an unshakeable responsibility to save rivers, as their political symbol “boat” is inherently tied to it.
He said: “When the Awami League was formed, the first meeting was held on a boat. The Pakistani government had imposed Section 144, but Maulana Bhasani told Bangabandhu that Section 144 does not apply on rivers.”
He also called for further strengthening the coast guard and river police to come down strong on drug trafficking and illegal dredging.
Not even the authorities are obeying rules and necessary steps are not being taken to solve the river pollution, annexation and safe naval journey -- alleges Chief Whip of the parliament Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton.
Shahidul Islam Bhuiyan, president of Launch Owners Association of Bangladesh, lamented the lack of safe harbours for ships on the river routes. He also said fishing nets also entangle ships on the rivers.
State Minister of Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said the ministry had done almost nothing since the Liberation War to 2008, before the Awami League government came to power.
He said: “We are improving the infrastructure. We are dredging rivers in Naogaon, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, wherever we have to.”
The state minister also claimed the international media focuses on casualties in Bangladesh in order to “control Bangladesh.”
He said: “They think they can control our actions by criticizing us. But we did not fight a bloody war to be controlled, we fought to be independent!”
The River Security Week started on March 30 and will end on April 5.
