Rickshaws!
I would appeal to Mr. Sikander Ahmed of Gulshan whose letter was published in The Daily Star on April 16, 2008, that we all maintain calm and put comprehensive, collective and decisive thought into this very obvious problem of rickshaws in our city streets.
First of all , I once again sense that Mr. Sikander's words paint an image of an 'angry man'. We can put out many facts and figures and try to justify the needs of rickshaws and perhaps, for many like me rickshaws are the primary mode of transport. But it still does not justify leaving rickshaws free to grow without control or planning.
In his letter Mr. Sikander assumed that I must own a car and therefore am promoting removal of rickshaws from Dhaka city streets. But the truth is that I do not own a car (Although my father does). My sisters, most of my close relatives, friends all rely heavily on rickshaws…yet, I am not in favour of leaving rickshaws alone. In this context, I would like to inform the public that a few days ago, I was coming back from my child's school (in my father's car), when I heard a loud, helpless cry of another little boy who was with her mother who fell out of the rickshaw they were riding on, as the rickshaw puller turned on to a side street without slowing down. I immediately stopped and as I went to the aid of the injured I found that the boy was crying and screaming out of fear, I found the mother badly hurt at her ankle. I quickly took them both into my car and drove them to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment. The woman needed 4 stitches and the terrified boy kept crying for the next whole hour as I waited for his father to arrive. It later turned out that the boy was in the same class of the same school as my daughter. Thank God they found a familiar face (May God help us all!). The point I am making is that rickshaws are extremely dangerous and we need to immediately put them on check.
We must understand that our city streets simply do not have the open space or capacity to bear the huge burden of rickshaws any longer. I request Mr. Sikander to read my last letter published in The Daily Star on this matter…and think deep. Let us not hate, rather think collectively and precisely instead of bashing people with cars.
Rickshaws must be eliminated from Dhaka city streets in quick phases. We must at the same time think about the rickshaw pullers who will become available for work.
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