If not anyone else, the bus drivers in Dhaka city have been enjoying full-freedom on the streets. They are free to pick or leave a passenger anywhere anytime. Everyplace is a stoppage for them. They give a damn to what is happening behind them. They tend to remain indifferent to desperate honking by the car drivers stuck up behind their buses.
Look at what happens every evening at the busy farm gate. You will find one or two Gulshan bound bus waiting for passengers near the farm gate foot over bridge, creating serious obstruction to normal flow of traffic. The on-duty traffic sergeants for mysterious reasons never take actions against the offenders.
The bus drivers, particularly the local ones operating on different routes of the city, wait at important bus stoppages even for half an hour to get their buses fully loaded with passengers, creating serious traffic jams at those points. The emergency rule has, apparently, failed to impress the traffic police. Their efficiency level has remained the same.
It is surprising that the government has decided to enhance the salaries of the traffic police by about 40 per cent. We feel a large amount of fund would be merely wasted since the traffic police are unlikely to change their habit.
A piece of advice for the Deputy Commissioner (traffic): Please do not allow the buses to stay at any bus stoppage in Dhaka city longer than a couple of minutes or pick or leave any passenger other than bus stoppages and ask all the buses to carry updated fitness certificates and tax tokens. Please also ask the traffic sergeants to be attentive to their duties.
Arif Mohammad
Paikpara, Mirpur
Errant bus drivers, indifferent traffic police
FE Team | Published: October 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like