An overcrowded city
Photo: Amirul Rajiv
There is no respite in traffic jam situation, no matter what action is taken. At times it seems to me with the activities of our leaders that they are aliens and are not aware of the problems the country is facing. Day light saving, time staggering are the best examples of such an action. Day light saving is in vogue in the United Sates not to save power but to increase and enhance the productivity of that nation. In Bangladesh it was introduced to save power, I wonder how much power has been saved over the period when it was in vogue. This concept can be compared to a knife in the hands of a surgeon and in the hands of a dacoit. The knife in the hands of a surgeon saves a life and the knife in the hands of a dacoit kills a life. Now to mitigate the sufferings of the commuters, the age old concept of time staggering is being tossed around to make a buffoonery of the people. As long as I can remember market holidays has been in vogue since Pakistan times, it is nothing new, rather it is old wine in a new bottle. It has been reported in the media that about 2000 people a day are entering Dhaka city from the different parts of the country in search of livelihoods. If this trend continues unabated, Expressways, Highways, Monorails, Flyovers nothing shall be of any use. To do away with this menacing problem, the trend has to be reversed and that is the best solution. In order to make this a reality, the government has to go into action to provide the means of livelihoods to the people all over the country and put an immediate stop to the influx of 2000 people a day into the capital. Gradually, the process has to be reversed by providing whatever that lures people into the capital. If I am not wrong, Bangabandhu back in 1975 harboured the idea of dividing the country into 60 provinces, appointing thereby 60 governors in a bid to decentralize the administration and prevent Dhaka from overcrowding. The present government is clamouring to go back to the 1972 constitution but has not shown any interest in the aforementioned novel concept of the founding father.
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