Let's not be biased
I could not help but notice the letter by Mr. Sikander Ahmed in The Daily Star on August 14,2009 and honestly, I can't say that I am surprised. As I have previously seen on many occasions his letters here that ONLY support the existence of rickshaws in Dhaka city roads.
The fact of the matter is, (I am absolutely sure) that everyone in Dhaka city will agree that rickshaws being an extremely dangerous form of transport and which is very degrading to the puller is one of the MAJOR causes of Dhaka city's traffic jams. But I of course realize that Dhaka has a lot of vehicles on it' roads that are actually more than it can handle. Besides, our traffic control system is barely under any system at all. There are almost no traffic signals in use and low number of traffic managers make it almost impossible to control traffic in a systematic manner. Surely, the rickshaw pullers don't make life easy for the poor traffic officers.
I understand that we cannot simply stop rickshaws right away and ban them in Dhaka all together, all of a sudden.
But, careful, impartial, and responsible thinking will make us see that unless we begin to think seriously on ways to bring and end to the rickshaw era, we run the risk of a breakdown of our entire transport system. Rickshaws are well on their way to take over the city's every corner. Any reasonable person will agree that if it was not for banning rickshaws on Mirpur Road, it would be IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to move on that road today. But do people like Mr. Sikander see it? I request him and others alike (I am sure not many out there) to please start to think about the future and be responsible towards our children and their lives. Do we really want to leave them to the anarchy of these careless and unruly rickshaw pullers?
Let me once more be absolutely clear that I am not against the rickshaw puller (the man), I am against the idea of man pulling this completely outdated inhuman object while others sit back and treat him like an animal. If we truly care for these people, then we will begin right now to think how to get them out of this miserable life and in turn help make our roads free for traffic movement that is suited for the year 2009 and beyond.
Let us all be IMPARTIAL and think deep. PLEASE!
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