Proposed road transport act ignores road-safety

VEHEMENTLY criticising several provisions of the proposed Road Transport Act, a minister, noted activists and transport leaders on Tuesday said the objective of the law was not clear. Participants in the discussion also said the law cannot achieve its goal with no mention of road safety, operations of the highways and being absurd on many counts. The discussants also criticised “disproportionately voluminous punishment for even petty offences” mentioned in the Proposed Law.

Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Malik-Sramik Oikya Parishad organised the discussion titled “Things to do to check road accidents and Road Transport Act-2017” in the city. while Brac and Safe Roads and Transport Alliance jointly organised another discussion on the proposed law and citizens’ expectations at the Brac Centre Inn the same day.

A modern law to bring in discipline on roads was needed but the draft law showcased bureaucratic mindset. It provides disproportionately voluminous punishment for even petty offences but then it treats all kinds of offences under this law bailable and compoundable making the entire proposition a farce.

The new law has no mentioned of safety. The proposed law has no written goal. The law was criticized for not having the provision for punishments for failing to stop at red lights, updating fitness certificates, and overloading, thus being discriminatory.

Among the disproportionate punishments are that one will face two years imprisonment for red light violation even when there is no signal light based traffic system in Dhaka and the provision for three years imprisonment and Tk 3 lakh fine for just one kilogram of overload. All provisions which are not realistic should be omitted from the law. The Draft Law mentions that only departmental actions would be taken against an engineer if an accident happened due to faulty road, which is discriminatory as many accidents happen due to poorly designed roads and highways but the bureaucrats in charge are never punished

The law is a dream for bureaucrats who have gone overboard to ensure that they are not harmed by it. It smacks of the old colonial mentality of bureaucrats being masters and not friends. What is needed for Bangladesh is a law which is passenger friendly and can be implemented easily – the existing draft Law Acts more like a sword than a shield. Experts suggested fixing the working hours of drivers, workers; displaying the fare rates inside buses; and reviewing educational qualification of drivers prior to renewing licences of existing drivers.

Laws should ideally be made by legislators or lawmakers – individuals who have been duly elected in a fair franchise to decide how to run the country. It is unfortunate that autocratic laws still exist regarding our roads and highways – especially the power of police to arbitrarily requisition vehicles, a law enacted during the time of the dictator Ershad. Enacting another such law will only give rise to the notion that it is another black law – or at least portions of it are. These must be scrapped and a more people friendly one be enacted for the law to actually work in our chaotic transportation sector. A law which is liked by nobody cannot ultimately be enforced on anybody.