Troubleshooting in transport sector
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
THE Bangladesh chapter of the Transparency International, the global anti-graft watchdog, last Sunday made known at a roundtable the findings of a recent study on the problems of the country's transport sector. The findings do largely relate to the operational role of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and other stakeholders in resolving the same, focusing on corruption and other irregularities in the transport sector. These are not entirely any new revelation. All concerned are more or less aware of the same. Those who have to pay visits occasionally to the BRTA offices and other relevant agencies for the purpose of registration of vehicles or for obtaining fitness certificates and driving licences know how difficult these places are. Despite having all the requisite documents in place, one has to grease the palms of the BRTA officials and employees concerned just to get the jobs done expeditiously. In not-so genuine cases, the amount of bribe money is usually high.
During the period of immediate past caretaker government, the situation in the BRTA offices improved significantly following punitive actions against a number of corrupt officials and partial elimination of the 'dalals' (middlemen). In exchange for a small amount of unofficial fees shared by the BRTA officials and employees, such middlemen do all the legwork on behalf of the vehicle owners and get things done and they are staging a comeback in a changed political environment. Actually, there exists a total anarchy in the country's transport sector where irregularities and highhandedness by a section of transport owners and workers are rampant.
Collection of tolls by the so-called labour unions, bus and truck owners and official agencies entrusted with the responsibility of traffic management is an open secret. There were half-hearted attempts in the past by the government to bring some order in the sector. But, as expected, those failed to deliver any tangible results. The problems in the transport sector are multifarious and deep-rooted; the ownership pattern of public transports and trucks is thought to be a major hurdle to any attempt to restore discipline in the sector. It is alleged that a large number of buses and trucks are owned by the people who are directly involved in traffic management. That is why operators of the public transports give a damn to traffic rules while they are on the city streets or highways. They do largely run motor vehicles according to their whims.
Other groups of people claiming themselves to be the representatives of transport workers' unions and bus owners' associations are found collecting tolls from inter-district buses and buses plying in city routes. The people in uniform are often seen taking bribes from the truck drivers at different points of the city and highways. And the bus owners, have reportedly made a permanent weekly or monthly arrangement of reaching 'funds' to the designated people involved in traffic management. One cannot expect discipline and order in a sector where irregularities do occur regularly and perpetrators can get away with total impunity.
Meanwhile, the communications minister, who was present at the roundtable, found the findings of the TIB research paper 'objective'. He assured all concerned of forming a high-powered committee within a week to remove the existing irregularities and corruption in the road transport sector. That is a tough job, no doubt. Yet people would like to pin their hopes on the minister's assurance. There is no denying that the rot in the transport sector has gone so deep that it would not be possible to eliminate the same within weeks or months. So, the sufferers would not expect results overnight. But the basic objective of the committee as proposed by the minister should be to kill the virus in the antidote. In this context, the people would, at least, hope at this stage that the communications minister would avoid this time the repetition of the past mistake about attending to address a problem by all those quarters being themselves otherwise involved in wrongdoing.
During the period of immediate past caretaker government, the situation in the BRTA offices improved significantly following punitive actions against a number of corrupt officials and partial elimination of the 'dalals' (middlemen). In exchange for a small amount of unofficial fees shared by the BRTA officials and employees, such middlemen do all the legwork on behalf of the vehicle owners and get things done and they are staging a comeback in a changed political environment. Actually, there exists a total anarchy in the country's transport sector where irregularities and highhandedness by a section of transport owners and workers are rampant.
Collection of tolls by the so-called labour unions, bus and truck owners and official agencies entrusted with the responsibility of traffic management is an open secret. There were half-hearted attempts in the past by the government to bring some order in the sector. But, as expected, those failed to deliver any tangible results. The problems in the transport sector are multifarious and deep-rooted; the ownership pattern of public transports and trucks is thought to be a major hurdle to any attempt to restore discipline in the sector. It is alleged that a large number of buses and trucks are owned by the people who are directly involved in traffic management. That is why operators of the public transports give a damn to traffic rules while they are on the city streets or highways. They do largely run motor vehicles according to their whims.
Other groups of people claiming themselves to be the representatives of transport workers' unions and bus owners' associations are found collecting tolls from inter-district buses and buses plying in city routes. The people in uniform are often seen taking bribes from the truck drivers at different points of the city and highways. And the bus owners, have reportedly made a permanent weekly or monthly arrangement of reaching 'funds' to the designated people involved in traffic management. One cannot expect discipline and order in a sector where irregularities do occur regularly and perpetrators can get away with total impunity.
Meanwhile, the communications minister, who was present at the roundtable, found the findings of the TIB research paper 'objective'. He assured all concerned of forming a high-powered committee within a week to remove the existing irregularities and corruption in the road transport sector. That is a tough job, no doubt. Yet people would like to pin their hopes on the minister's assurance. There is no denying that the rot in the transport sector has gone so deep that it would not be possible to eliminate the same within weeks or months. So, the sufferers would not expect results overnight. But the basic objective of the committee as proposed by the minister should be to kill the virus in the antidote. In this context, the people would, at least, hope at this stage that the communications minister would avoid this time the repetition of the past mistake about attending to address a problem by all those quarters being themselves otherwise involved in wrongdoing.