Editorial
Living dangerously!
Rail tracks should be cleared of bazaars
AS a highly populous metropolis Dhaka bordering on being a megapolis in terms of sheer size of population some of its negative features usually get overlooked but they should not be. One is the proliferation of slums and as a corollary to it you have squatter settlements and make shift businesses along the railway lines.
Here we are confining ourselves to the second negative feature of the city namely, the bazaars and the slums zigzagging along the railway lines. These are dangerously close to the rail tracks in breach of a standing regulation that people must keep twenty feet away from these. In law it is a punishable offence as well. But who cares? You see people setting up their business on the free railway tracks as a train whizzes passed them on another track. A news photo in our yesterday's issue amply highlighted such incongruity in urban life.
How hazardous such living can be is proven by the fact that sometimes we get to know of fatalities or injuries inflicted on human person. One reason that drives such aberrant behaviour is sheer poverty. The second cause for the proliferation of hazardous existentialism is lack of law enforcement. It is time we paid attention to these sordid facets of urban life.
It is not only for the railway authorities to effectively discourage such dangerous living. Government agencies and voluntary organizations need to lend a hand to sensitize the people against such violation of law and dangerous living.
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