Awami League General Secretary and Minister for Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader said so many roads, flyovers, underpasses, border roads and marine drives are being constructed in the country. Then why can’t we bring order on the road. Now the main crisis is in discipline, transportation and roads. If we fail here, all our development will fail. So, our challenge is to bring order on the road.
“One day a year (October 22), our responsibility will not end if we put up beautiful banner posters and placards,” he said. Safe roads are not a day, safe roads must be done every day.
He made the remarks at a discussion meeting on the occasion of National Safe Roads Day-2021 at Sarak Bhaban Auditorium in Tejgaon Industrial Area of the capital on Friday (October 22).
The meeting was organized by the Road Transport and Highways Department of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
Obaidul Quader said BRTA’s driving license has been stuck for a long time. Thousands of applications, licenses have been issued. I would say that even if you work on holidays, you will be given the stuck licenses. There is a lot of demand for licenses now. The petitioners are crying for this. Now that the tangle has opened, this is a matter of hope. I want it to be no more tangled in the future.
Regarding the irregularities and corruption in the BRTA, he said that those who commit misdeeds and corruption here should be brought to justice. Those who lobby to go there, lobby for something. Because there are some transactions. I will not blame those who lobbied for this, for whom I will lobby. So, these have to stop. As long as I am in charge of this ministry, I will not accept any irregularities and corruption.
He said people sometimes lost their lives in collisions of two transports, sometimes in three-wheeler easy bikes, Nasimon-Karimon accidents. For this we have banned these on 22 roads. But in many places this ban is not being obeyed. And lately, the new nuisance is motorcycles. Motorcycles do not mean any rules. Most of the accidents that happen on the road every day are motorcycles. Two or three people do not have helmets. I tried to force the drivers to wear helmets. Now everyone means rules to ride a motorcycle.
He said the police show how many cases have been filed and how many fines have been imposed. These are not issues to me. The issue for me is whether the road is safe, whether the number of road accidents has decreased. Whether the car has fitness. Whether the driver has fitness. Whether the car is at over speed, whether the driver is fit to drive or not – these are matters for me to see.
Accidents are happening every day, people are dying like birds, people are dying like flies. As a human being, I can’t stand these tragic scenes. I have had a lot of trouble with the responsibilities of this ministry, I have walked the streets day and night, in the rain-sun-winter. But did not get the desired result. But the road has improved a lot. So, this time we have to reduce road accidents. The road must be made safe. We have to bring back discipline in transport and roads.
Secretary of the Department of Road Transport and Highways. Presided over by Nazrul Islam, the function was also attended by Additional Inspector General of Bangladesh Highway Police Mallik Fakhrul Islam, Chairman of Safe Roads Wanted (Nischa) Movement Actor Ilyas Kanchan, BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumder.
