Wrong-lane driving continues in the capital in the presence of police, leading to intensified traffic congestion on the city roads, especially the busy and important ones.
The High Court issued show cause notices to the government and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police with regard to wrong-lane driving by VIPs and VVIPs.
Driving on the wrong side is mainly practised by government high officials, journalists and even police themselves, said DMP officials.
The police are failing to take action against them as they are influential and have high social standing, they also said.
Wrong-side driving is a common scenario on roads including Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Hare Road, Sonargaon Road and Topkhana Road.
Besides, non-motor vehicles and those of different education institutions are also seen to take wrong side almost everywhere in the capital.
The High Court on October 23, 2014 served show cause notices on the government and the police to explain why they should not be asked to enforce traffic rules strictly to prevent some VIPs and VVIPs from using the wrong side of various streets of Dhaka to avoid traffic-jams.
It is the mandate of Article 27 of the constitution that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law, said the court.
In November last year, the DMP started taking photos of the vehicles running on the wrong side and then sending report, with photos, to the organisations concerned.
A senior DMP official told New Age that they had sent two letters with photos of vehicles to the environment and forest ministry and private television channel Ekattor TV in November warning them against riding on the wrong side.
But they did not fine them like other common people, he said.
About three weeks ago, while police were taking photos of a judge’s vehicle, the judge called for explanation, said a senior officer.
DMP’s joint commissioner for traffic Mosleh Uddin Ahmed told New Age on Thursday that they regularly fine common people for wrong-lane driving.
About government officials, journalists and police members, he said, ‘We are taking legal actions against them. Besides, we are also sending warning report with photos to respective organisations.’
He also said as the government officials or police are engaged in important state-work, so they sometimes have to use wrong-lane.
Currently police has started to video the wrong-lane driving.
DMP on May 22, 2014 for the first time set up ‘Protirodh’, a device used to prevent riding on the wrong side, on Hare Road in front of the state guest house Jamuna, which had to be removed on June 4 due to ‘technical difficulties’.
The police re-launched the device on Shaheed Mansur Ali Sarani in front of the DMP headquarters on November 21.
At present most of the spikes of the device, which cost more than Tk 5 lakh to build, are damaged under the pressure of vehicles.
Source: New age
