No law as traffic rule violators go scot-free

Violators of traffic rules easily escape punishment in the absence of appropriate laws although the number of road accidents has increased.
On the other hand, the authorities are taking a long time to enact a new law in this regard.
The government took an initiative to enact a timely and updated law abolishing the age-old Motor Vehicles Ordinance after death of Tareq Masud and Mishuk Munir in 2011.
However, even after three years, the draft Road Transport and Traffic Act could not be finalised.
Sources said instead of speeding up the process to finalise the draft Act, initiative was taken to restart the process by deciding to draft the new law into two parts.
The Ministry of Communication, now named as the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, drafted the Road Transport and Traffic Act (RTTA) in 2012 which was supposed to be finalised in 2013. The RTTA was prepared by foreign consultants under a World Bank-funded project.
But the initiative came to a halt as the cabinet on February 14, 2013 asked the ministry to review all laws enacted during the two military rules.
Meanwhile, the High Court in an order declared as obsolete the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983, which replaced the 1939 ordinance of the British period.
Officials said, after getting the cabinet directive, the ministry held a meeting on November 27, 2013 and decided to divide the RTTA into two parts - one exclusively for road transport and another to regulate the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) as a regulator.
They said the BRTA was formed as per a provision of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance but without details.
When asked about how the roads are now being managed in the absence of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance following the court order, a senior official said, the ordinance will remain in force until the new law is enacted.
The officials said the BRTA will revise its function and will simplify different processes including those of driving licenses.
Another ministry official said the BRTA Act and the Road Transport Act would not address the issues of punishing drivers and transport owners for violating traffic rules as these are the issues of the BRTA Rules and Regulation or Road Traffic Rules and Regulation.
When the RTTA was first drafted, it was welcomed for bringing in many changes and introducing new features but it was sent for review of the provision of punishment for reckless driving and fatal accidents. The act recommended highest punishment of two years' jail term and Tk 10,000 fine to drivers for reckless driving and violation of traffic rules. Critics rejected the provisions saying these would not bring discipline on the roads.
Following criticism, the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), under which the RTTA draft was prepared, posted it online for public comments. But it sent the draft for its translation into Bengali later, failing to get enough comments due to its English version.
An official involved in the fresh law drafting, however, said that there is no intention of delaying the draft of the Road Transport Act or BRTA Act as the process itself is lengthy.
But critics said taking time to draft laws is due to too much political influence and control over the road transport sector. They said most of the transport owners, workers and drivers are backed by political parties.
In recent days, road accidents have increased due to reckless driving and violation of traffic rules taking hundreds of lives. The latest accident in Natore killed 33 people on October 20.

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