An appeal
Like a wave of fresh air and renewed hope and after tolerating years of inertia of the Executive and the hot air of the Legislative, it is the Judiciary that has become alive to the problems that confound us all. Their Lordships in the Supreme and High Courts have rightly interceded in areas like illegal land grabbing, forest plundering, lake and river bank occupation, rivers and lakes pollution, removal of illegal bill-boards etc, where the rights of the people have been usurped by criminals due to the lax attitude and/or corruption of the relevant authorities.
May I therefore draw the kind attention of their Lordships to the great injustice meted out to a majority of Dhakabashis day in and day out on the streets of Dhaka itself, by banning the cheapest, most environmentally friendly, most easily available and fastest (under the present circumstances) mode of transport on major roads, thereby forcing over 50 lakh Dhakabashis to become pedestrians and depriving nearly 25 lakh rickshaw related people and their families of an honest livelihood. THERE IS AT PRESENT NO VIABLE ALTERNATIVE.
Hundreds of crores of takas are spent in installing expensive traffic lights, construction of freeways, the latest being Tk. 170 crore underpasses on Airport Road (DS 9 May) ready by 2011 (ridiculous!) and other gadgets to ease the passage of cars of a privileged few. Yet it is a fact (testified by experts) that while the 5 lakh + motor vehicles occupy 60-75% of road space, they carry only about 3-5% of passengers.
Banning rickshaws/vans from roads is causing immense suffering to millions of men, women, children, elderly, students, disabled, ill, infirm and small traders whose constitutional rights are also infringed. Banning rickshaws from roads is not the answer, rather jams are exacerbated because many sane car-owners who would use rickshaws for short journeys (a recent survey revealed that over 60% of journeys are 2 kms +-), are now forced to bring their cars out on the road.
Your Lordships, please save Dhaka by bringing sanity on our roads!!!
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments