Editor's Pick

Editorial

Cop atrocity on cab drivers

Is requisition of public vehicles supported by law?
15 May 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
THE police action on some of the taxicab drivers in Farmgate area on Thursday following requisitioning of their vehicles deserves to be condemned in the strongest of words. On the day, some policemen stopped taxicabs randomly on the road to requisition them, and beat the cab drivers when they resisted the move. What is most appalling is that the police personnel almost denuded one cab driver during the scuffle that followed. Eight drivers were arrested and sent to Tejgaon Police Station and the very act infuriated other cab drivers, who grew in number, and staged a demonstration before the police station on Friday for their release. Here again policemen used batons to disperse them when the cab drivers raised their voice against such 'illegal and whimsical' requisition, which caused them financial loss and harassment. Requisition of vehicles is an executive power that is used during emergency periods only, for instance, in times of war or civil disorder. In no civilised country, during peace time, police or any law-enforcing agency seizes vehicles on the roads in the name of requisition for official use, without giving any prior notice or proper explanation, as it is not permitted by law. Therefore, we wonder, under what authority or law Tejgaon police stopped taxicabs on Thursday and took them to the police station by force. They did not care to think that cab drivers suffer financial loss when their vehicles are requisitioned as the owners of the vehicles demand the day's rent from them no matter what. We feel the whole practice and policy of requisition of vehicles by the police or any other government agency needs to be reviewed and formed anew keeping in mind the suffering and financial loss of the drivers and owners. If necessity forces the police to use public vehicles then civility demands that the owners must be paid compensation as deemed acceptable by them. In case of an emergency assignment, police force may always ask for vehicles from the government pool and /or can hire them on payment from a rent-a-car office. But, under no circumstances, must they go about the roads stopping cars or taxicabs and forcing the drivers out and towing them to police stations, all in the name of official use. It has to stop right away.

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