When death comes uninvited

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Shamsul Huq Zahid
Death stalks the residents of Dhaka, which other day earned the rare honour (!) of becoming the world's second worst city, everywhere. No place is safe here. Death comes uninvited.
What was the speed of Monday's brief hailstorm that swept over the city? According to the weathermen, its top speed was a paltry 65 km per hour. Yet it could uproot a big overhead billboard near the Gulshan circle number one and dump it on the road, killing two persons and injuring five others. At least, three private cars and a motorcycle were also badly damaged.
The incident has again exposed the weaknesses of the structures of the large billboards erected on the rooftop of buildings and near the road crossing in Dhaka city. It has also brought to the fore the indifference of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to the safety and security of the people living in this city, which, to many, has become unlivable.
However, deaths from billboard collapse are not unknown in this city of 16 million. Last year one person was killed and three others were injured when an overhead billboard collapsed on a phone shop near the newly renamed Hazrat Shahjalal ® airport after failing to withstand stormy winds. Similarly, two persons were killed and several others injured in two separate incidents in city in 2006. Some incidents of billboard collapse, luckily, involved no casualties.
Billboards have mushroomed in the capital city though the DCC, according to a newspaper report, has given permission to erect only 300 of the same. None knows for sure the actual number of roadside billboards. But DCC official has claimed it to be around 2200.
An obvious question should be agitating the minds of city residents; why did not the DCC dismantle the unauthorized billboards? The DCC people have ready answer: "we don't have the requisite manpower to do the job".
Did anyone ever see the mayor or chief executive officer or chief engineer or any other official of the DCC physically involved in the construction or repair of roads or surface drains? The answer would be obviously in the negative.
What does it do when DCC invites tenders and awards work orders to the successful bidders. Construction of roads or surface drains does require some planning and engineering work. But the removal of unauthorized billboards requires only involvement of a magistrate, police personnel, if necessary, and hiring of a good number of day labourers. So, the excuse of manpower shortage is not at all tenable.
It is hard to believe that the advertising firms have erected hundreds of unauthorized billboards in the city beyond the knowledge of the DCC officials concerned. The two groups must have developed a secret understanding to share the earning since the advertising firms collect hefty amounts from their clients for advertising through billboards or rooftop neon signs.
The advertising firms are required to pay a certain amount of taxes to the DCC against the erection of billboards and neon signs on rooftop and private land. The firms avoid tax payment and flout rules relating to erection of billboards and neon signs with the blessings of DCC men.
The government should not be indifferent to tragic deaths involving the Monday's billboard collapse at Gulshan considering it just as an accident. It must do the needful to compensate the families of the victims and car owners.
It should ask the agencies concerned to find out the advertising firm that erected the billboard in question and make it to pay compensation to all affected by the accident. Besides, the ministry of local government, rural development and cooperatives should immediately ask the DCC to dismantle all unauthorized billboards and rooftop neon signs. The engineering section of DCC should also be asked to examine the quality of structures of the authorized billboards and hand over clearance certificates to the advertising firms concerned.
Some people tend to consider more than usual number of deaths in road or launch accidents, fire incidents etc., as natural developments in a highly over-populated country. But that is a feeling at the individual level. A government worth its name cannot just be an onlooker to deaths of citizens because of accidents. It must do whatever is necessary to stop recurrence of such accidents.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh is a country where the government and its subjects are very much forgetful in nature. Accidents of high magnitude, usually, trigger a flurry of activities at the official level and receive widespread media focus. But after some days both focus and attention of all concerned shift to something else. Everybody again wakes up to reality only when a similar accident recurs. A change in approach, though essential, is highly unlikely.