Unrealistic policies don’t work
Enacted almost a year ago with implementation twice delayed, the new Road Safety Act has already been plagued by an unwillingness of acceptability. There are several elements to the new law but at the heart of it are punitive fines that are unrealistic. The fines related to absence of documents by drivers, talking on mobile phones while driving and so on are beyond the capability of offenders to pay. The hefty fines for parking in no parking zones not only create a burden but don’t offer solutions to the practicality of finding proper parking space.
The result has been public transport simmering with threats of an all out strike that will hamper the lives of the daily commuter. The burden of such fines should go on the shoulders of the authorities that have sanctioned shops and establishments to come up without provisions of proper parking. Nor have the sterling examples set by the Gulshan and Banani societies been taken in to consideration. In so far as well thought through policies go the current law has clearly put the cart before the horse. The one way and up-down system successfully deployed in Kolkata could have been considered as could have the earmarking of certain side roads for single-lane parking. As it is private vehicles have literally nowhere to halt their vehicles, a situation exacerbated by the video surveillance on CCTV that is piling on traffic cases.
If rules are to be established they have to be consumer friendly which the current law isn’t. While it can be argued that a section of the ‘consumer’ doesn’t require consideration, reality suggests the impunity with which that section has been operating has been doing so in intentional or otherwise connivance of a number of government agencies. Corrective measures have to be taken from the root and that begins with the documentation of both vehicles and drivers concerned. The fines have to be commensurate with the paying ability of the offenders. No wonder the court ruling calling upon a transport company to pay a reported Tk 50 lakh compensation to a victim of an accident hasn’t been adhered to.
The general feeling is that such inordinate fines are only opening up the gates to further corruption in the law enforcing agencies which will lead to no improvement in the current state of affairs. This and the strikes being called by the public transport owners are leading to a head on confrontation with the government and will cause chaos in commuting for the general passengers. The law is required but there are subsidiary factors that have to be taken in to consideration if it is to work. Applying a law that isn’t friendly cannot produce results.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has to get its act together. RAJUK and the city corporations have to sort out with the traffic police the issue of parking and above all streams of volunteers are required to assist commuter vehicles in implementation of the law.
*Mahmudur Rahman is a communication expert. He can be reached at [email protected]
