Rickshaws, again
I am really sympathetic towards Md. Lutfar Rahman (Letter to DS on March 20, 2009), as I too am feeling the pain and suffering each and every day caused by the careless behaviour of the rickshaw-pullers on Dhaka streets.
I have written several letters on this subject before and haven't seen any serious and effective measure by the authorities to bring an end to the rickshaw menace in our city. Dhaka has become a heaven for illegal rickshaw-pullers. It seems as though motorized vehicles have made a mistake to come out on the streets by not letting the rickshaws take up each and every inch of the roads. Rickshaw-pullers ride like kings as they do not fear anyone.
They know that if a vehicle touches his rickshaw, chances are it will be the vehicle not his rickshaw that will get some bruise marks. Besides, if by chance the rickshaw gets damaged (Mostly due to the negligence and unsafe riding by the rickshaw-puller), there will be many street thugs who will come to the rescue of the "poor", "helpless" "innocent" puller. Subsequently, the owner/driver of the vehicle hitting the rickshaw will have to pay money to get out of the situation 'safely'. This simply needs to stop. Long ago, there was a plan to ban rickshaws on many of the city's busy roads. I wonder how and more importantly why that decision has not been implemented. As a civilized society, we cannot simply sit idle and let this problem get out of our hands. It seems that every day hundreds (if not thousands) of additional rickshaws are entering our roads.
At this time, for the sake of allowing time for the present rickshaw-pullers to find alternative means of living, we must only let them on local lanes and certainly not on busy, overcrowded main roads. Gradually ALL rickshaws need to be pulled off all Dhaka Metropolitan City roads if we want to maintain a civilized, sensible transport network in Dhaka.
I can understand that initially many of us may disagree to withdraw rickshaws as we have become so used to this outdated and extremely dangerous form of transport that is a hazard to everyone on the road. But I am absolutely certain that once they are out and gone, we will all be thankful to the government that takes the bold and courageous step to end the nuisance created by rickshaws on our city streets and takes us out of our misery.
As we are now under a democratically elected popular government, I pray and hope that we will see some immediate steps towards bringing this city closer to a world class capital by banning rickshaws on ALL main roads of Dhaka.
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