Editorial
Strengthen monitoring of river ports
Initiate proper investigation into accidents
The revelation made about the number of unregistered vessels at The Daily Star roundtable on how to prevent launch accidents comes as a shock as it goes beyond all plausible perceptions. The director general of the Department of Shipping (DoS) told the roundtable that no less than two lakh unregistered vessels, which is 24 times higher than the registered ones, ply the rivers in the country. Little surprise that sporadic accidents claiming hundreds of lives occur every year due to collision. A paper presented at the programme by the convenor of Nou-Sarak-Rail Khat Rakkha Jatiya Committee, puts the number of deaths at 2,100 and missing people at 600 due to river accidents in the last eight years, which is almost twice as many as the government data. We are at a loss as to why the shipping ministry does not prioritize this sector and bring all inland vessels under registration even after such large-scale casualties every year.
We also fail to understand why none of the fatal river accidents were properly investigated and why not a single person to this day has either been convicted or arrested. Nor has ever been any recommendation by the probe committees heeded. Buet experts from the naval architecture and marine engineering department at the programme raised questions about the transparency of the investigations which allegedly were misdirected by vested quarters. We demand full-fledged investigation into all recent accidents by competent probe bodies comprising Buet experts, along with timely implementation of all their recommendations, including enforcement of the law to stop sand-laden vessels plying at night.
Similarly shocking is the fact that the DoS has only four fitness surveyors for identifying the unfit vessels from over 2,188 registered passenger carriers, leave alone the unregistered ones. This utter shortage of manpower must be addressed immediately and all river ports brought under effective monitoring. As well as stepping up coordination between different regulatory bodies, the government would do really well to form a river police force to ensure patrolling and enforcement of various laws in the rivers.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments