Over 0.10m unfit vehicles ply in Ctg
Saturday, 15 March 2008
CHITTAGONG, March 14 (BSS): A total of 1,19,031, out of 1,56,023, different registered vehicles are plying greater Chittagong region without valid documents particularly fitness.
Officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said, of those, about 35 thousand are running in the Chittagong city while rest are in Chittagong, Cox's bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati districts.
Sources said police and BRTA officials seized over 3000 fake licenses in the year 2007 during routine drives. They observed that there are huge quantities of fake licenses in the hands of a section of drivers and vehicle owners.
Apart from causing frequent accidents due to plying of unfit vehicles by unskilled drivers, the government has been deprived of a huge chunk of revenue from the sector every year.
On the other hand, vehicle owners and drivers on condition of anonymity told BSS that obtaining or renewing licences or regularizing the other documents is not an easy task as people often face untold sufferings by a section of BRTA officials even after submition of all valid papers.
They also alleged that concerned officials do not complete the process in time even after fulfillment of all preconditions for obtaining fresh licences or renewing necessary documents claiming various faults in order to have bribes for the job.
Talking to BSS, drivers and owners of vehicles complained that a gang of brokers are involved in processing fake driving licence, fitness certificates, tax-tokens and other documents in cooperation with some dishonest BRTA officials.
"Drivers and owners are compelled to take the help of these brokers in obtaining driving licenses and renewing other documents to avoid harassment by BRTA officials," a number of the sufferers alleged.
Sagir Ahmed, a businessman alleged that he went to a BRTA officer directly with all necessary valid papers required for updating fitness certificates of his car and his driving license in February last but he failed to complete the process after repeated attempts due to non-cooperative attitude from the officials concerned who showed him various trivial reasons.
Finding no way, he sought help from a broker who assured him of doing the job within short time on condition of paying some extra money. "I agreed to his proposal and surprisingly the things were done within couple of days by the broker" he said.
Another worst victim of the irregularities in Ctg BRTA office is businessman Moinuddin who had to suffer in the process of transferring the centre of registration against his newly purchased pick-up van from Sylhet to Chittagong.
Though he had submitted all the valid documents to the office after spending much time, an official finally reluctant to register his van with Chittagong office on the ground that the documents issued by the Sylhet BRTA office were hand written.
After collecting the computer printed documents from Sylhet office he submitted those here. The officer then asked the businessman to produce another 10-year old document.
An honest BRTA official here unwilling to disclosed his name told BSS correspondent that this is the common scenario of Ctg BRTA office but after imposition of state of emergency and constant vigilance of army-led joint forces, the rate and incidents of irregularities have reduced to a great extent.
Officials said of the total registered vehicles, 14860 are trucks, 41092 auto-rickshaws and tempo, 27,743 cars and 29768 motorcycles and others are different category of vehicles but most of the trucks, auto-rickshaws, tempo and motorbikes are plying without fitness certificate and other necessary documents.
Officials of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said, of those, about 35 thousand are running in the Chittagong city while rest are in Chittagong, Cox's bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati districts.
Sources said police and BRTA officials seized over 3000 fake licenses in the year 2007 during routine drives. They observed that there are huge quantities of fake licenses in the hands of a section of drivers and vehicle owners.
Apart from causing frequent accidents due to plying of unfit vehicles by unskilled drivers, the government has been deprived of a huge chunk of revenue from the sector every year.
On the other hand, vehicle owners and drivers on condition of anonymity told BSS that obtaining or renewing licences or regularizing the other documents is not an easy task as people often face untold sufferings by a section of BRTA officials even after submition of all valid papers.
They also alleged that concerned officials do not complete the process in time even after fulfillment of all preconditions for obtaining fresh licences or renewing necessary documents claiming various faults in order to have bribes for the job.
Talking to BSS, drivers and owners of vehicles complained that a gang of brokers are involved in processing fake driving licence, fitness certificates, tax-tokens and other documents in cooperation with some dishonest BRTA officials.
"Drivers and owners are compelled to take the help of these brokers in obtaining driving licenses and renewing other documents to avoid harassment by BRTA officials," a number of the sufferers alleged.
Sagir Ahmed, a businessman alleged that he went to a BRTA officer directly with all necessary valid papers required for updating fitness certificates of his car and his driving license in February last but he failed to complete the process after repeated attempts due to non-cooperative attitude from the officials concerned who showed him various trivial reasons.
Finding no way, he sought help from a broker who assured him of doing the job within short time on condition of paying some extra money. "I agreed to his proposal and surprisingly the things were done within couple of days by the broker" he said.
Another worst victim of the irregularities in Ctg BRTA office is businessman Moinuddin who had to suffer in the process of transferring the centre of registration against his newly purchased pick-up van from Sylhet to Chittagong.
Though he had submitted all the valid documents to the office after spending much time, an official finally reluctant to register his van with Chittagong office on the ground that the documents issued by the Sylhet BRTA office were hand written.
After collecting the computer printed documents from Sylhet office he submitted those here. The officer then asked the businessman to produce another 10-year old document.
An honest BRTA official here unwilling to disclosed his name told BSS correspondent that this is the common scenario of Ctg BRTA office but after imposition of state of emergency and constant vigilance of army-led joint forces, the rate and incidents of irregularities have reduced to a great extent.
Officials said of the total registered vehicles, 14860 are trucks, 41092 auto-rickshaws and tempo, 27,743 cars and 29768 motorcycles and others are different category of vehicles but most of the trucks, auto-rickshaws, tempo and motorbikes are plying without fitness certificate and other necessary documents.