Dhaka: Beauty and the beast

So Dhaka now wears a festive look. It's a cricket city in real term. In being so, not that the stadiums have undergone reforms, the city, particularly the main thoroughfares have been beautified, too. Starting from the airport, the main streets of the metropolis have been tastefully decorated with welcome banners, festoons and artworks. Welcome arches and attractive billboards have been erected at important places. The road walls, road dividers and road islands, and even the pavements now glow with touches of brush and paints. Lush green grass and street plants with flowers of different kinds soothe our minds. The scenario of the city's main avenues and roads, when projected on TV screen, makes us forget that these are images of Dhaka city. With the fall of dusk, some areas of the city turn into dreamland with colourful lights illuminating all around. One thing, however, does not match the beauty brought in marking the World Cricket Cup---- the look of the public transports, particularly that of the buses, trucks, lorries and taxies. Despite all efforts to beautify the city, the dilapidated public transports and the transport system depict the same disarray situation as before. The age-old, dented buses with faulty engines and rusty colours do not only remain a threat to public safety, they also mar the aesthetic beauty of the city. When they move on the city streets they look like ugly monsters caring nothing. The inner conditions of these vehicles are more deplorable where the passengers are treated like chickens in a cage. The poor passengers remain helpless at the rustic and rude behaviour of the crew. The inevitable result of this extremely chaotic transportation system is the recurrence of accidents that claim valuable lives quite often. How it happens, why it happens and is there really no remedy? All these irregularities take place within the knowledge of the people of the government machinery who are meant to let it not happen. The common people are helpless observers and victims only. It looks it will continue to happen, whoever may fall victim, may be you, he or me, or someone of the government machinery who is or was responsible to arrest this unholy situation. There are ample of such instances taking place, many of them in very recent past. I have a bitter experience that I have been bearing in mind since long. A decade and a half ago I had been to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) office at Mirpur in the city to get fitness for my car which I drove myself and so always took extra care of it. Having reached there well in the morning, I cleared the necessary fee, and queued my vehicle at the appropriate row. Needless to say there were many more in my front at the queue. As I was thinking how much time it might take for my turn to come, agents came one after another offering me to get the job done without any hassle, and of course much earlier that my usual turn. In my consideration, my car was in tiptop condition, and therefore, there should not have been any problem in getting the fitness. So, I annoyingly told the agents not to disturb me. As I kept waiting, no agent disturbed me further. Needless to say, my waiting was too long though I noticed many cars coming after me went out earlier getting their job done. But I remained adamant, and did not submit myself to what I considered immoral act. Morning became noon, and noon afternoon; and finally my turn came late in the afternoon, almost at the fag end of the day's business. And, and the inspector giving a negligent look at my car gave his verdict that it can not pass the fitness test as it had a scar on it. The busy inspector advising me to properly paint the spot and come some other day, immediately moved on to the next vehicle. Truly there was a spot, a little bigger than a mole. Weary me; I did not know what to do. Protest and take up a quarrel, raise a hue and cry how damaged, dented vehicles are being cleared? Right then one agent was handy offering the same help. Weary me I took his help. He took my 'blue book' and got it signed and sealed by the same inspector. The incident, however insignificant it may be, has been haunting me since then. There is clear regulation that vehicles with dent, however small it may be, do not fulfill the criterion of getting fitness certificate; and vehicles without fitness can not ply on the streets. But the reality is, vehicles with bigger dents and major faults are getting fitness certificate, and with or without fitness certificate, are plying on the city streets without facing any problem. What lacks here is application of law. People at BRTA are abusing it for their selfish end; and members of the law enforcing agencies, the police in particular, are also tuning blind obviously for their selfish end. If only the age-old, dented and dilapidated vehicles are taken off the city streets, the rate of accidents will come down drastically. And with these bad looking vehicles off, the city streets will give a good look, a look that is in conformity with the beautification of the city. In many developed countries, realisation of penalties and fines from offenders and traffic rule violators is an important source of their revenue earnings. Why our government, striving hard to raise domestic resources for the attainment of self reliance, can not follow the suit.