Editorial
Disciplining auto workshops
Apply the amended law
Auto workshops are an integral part of mechanised transportation system. Yet, by Bangladesh Automobile Workshop Owners Association's own admission, only 800 out of 20,000 automobile workshops across the country are registered with their organization itself. The question that follows is: how many of them are registered with any government authority? Or do most of them, for that matter, have trade or industry licence to operate? We have no statistics nor any database for a proliferating and ubiquitous ancillary industry that is devoted to the useful tasks of servicing and repairing motorised vehicles.
It is an important service sector hitherto left to its own devices. Unregulated, these have mushroomed all over, intruding into the residential spaces as well as on to road sides and parts of pavements. These have constricted road space, caused traffic congestion added to environmental pollution and, above all, brought suffering to people including pedestrians.
Only on March 2 new rules came into force by virtue of a gazette notification on an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Rules, 1984. These have made registration of workshops or garages with Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) mandatory.
Now, the issue is implementing the new rules. First and foremost, the rules, requirements, criteria and procedures for registration must be disseminated through the media. Then the BRTA would stipulate a time limit for registration and those who fail to comply by a specified deadline will be liable for legal action.
We urge the transport ministry and BRTA in particular to expeditiously complete the process of disciplining and standardising the auto workshops. Many of them are run in open spaces or in congested residential and business areas. Most of them employ child labour and some even harbour car-jackers. Apart from the business and service points of view, even from the law and order angle, implementation of the amended law brooks no delay.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments