No launch sans certificate can ply, passenger ticket a must

The government and the owners Sunday drafted a set of consensus recommendations for passenger safety that bars any launch sans fitness certificate and necessary gear from plying country's river routes, as some fatal accidents alarmed all.      
Carry passengers beyond capacity and expansion of river- port terminals are also among the agreed waterway transport rules.
"Passengers must have ticket for traveling and setting up railings and stairs on the launch must not be allowed to prevent passengers from moving onto the rooftop for traveling," says one of the recommendations.
The rules were drafted at a meeting between the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) and Bangladesh Inland Waterways (passenger carriers) Association (BIWA) in the conference room of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).  
For a detailed examination of the recommendations the MoS formed a nine-member committee headed by Nur ur Rahman, a joint secretary of the ministry.  
The other members of the committee are Fakrul Islam,  chief engineer of the Department of Shipping, Rabiul Islam, joint secretary of BIWTA, and four representatives of the launch owners' association and two from the  labour organisations.  
The committee will submit reports within next seven working days to the government for taking final decisions for implementing the recommendations.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan presided over the meeting. Chairman of BIWTA Md Samsuddoha Khondaker, Chairman of BIWA Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Bir Bikram, and Senior Vice-Chairman Golam Kibria Tipu and Vice-Chairman Md Alamgir Mian were among others present.   
"The government will strictly monitor any launch carrying passengers beyond its capacity," the Shipping Minister said.
He said the committee will work from today (Monday) for submitting their reports within the stipulated time.
From now on, the said the minister, a newly built launch must have a system that prevents passengers from entering one launch from another at the terminal.
Small-sized launches must have fitness certificates for plying the river routes.
He said the number of river-route incidents has decreased during the present government's rule compared to the BNP- led previous government's time.
Mr Khan said the government has taken a plan to address the flaws and complaints about breach of rules in building river vessels.
The launch owners at the meeting alleged that the officials of the MoS, BIWTA and the Department of Shipping harassed the launch owners in the name of examining the fitness certificate.
They demanded of the government to stop such "harassment".
They put forward a set of demands to the government for consideration.
Those include stopping illegitimate arrest and harassment of launch owners and filing criminal cases in the name of re-survey of launch, increase in the number of surveyors, continuation of the procedure for modification plan approval for launch, interest-free loan for modernisation of the running launches.
They also pleaded that cases related to the river-route incidents be filed at the Marine Court through the Department of Shipping.