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People leaving city for Eid

Mad rush everywhere


Bangladeshpost
Published : 19 Jul 2021 09:12 PM | Updated : 20 Jul 2021 01:48 AM

Flouting the Covid-19 health guidelines, thousands of holidaymakers are leaving capital city Dhaka city for their village homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha amid immense sufferings due to shortages of transports and heavy rainfall in many places.

Taking advantage of the government's periodic withdrawal of restrictions on public and traffic movement, city-dwellers in their multitudes were seen moving towards exit points for departure.

As a result, the pressure of passengers on bus, railway and launch terminals was seen too heavy.

But the chilling part of such rampant trips was the frequent violation of health safety rules by travelers.

None of the transports like bus, launch and train were maintaining the guidelines prescribed by the government. Not only that most of them were not wearing neither face masks nor using sanitizers while travelling. 

During isits to the terminals of bus, lunch and train, it was seen that all the transports were leaving Dhaka with overload of home going people.

Besides, all the terminals were also seen jam-packed with the gathering of people and transports.

In a facebook post earlier on Sunday night, Post and Telecommunication Minister Mostofa Zabber mentioned that a total of 16,93,000 SIM users left Dhaka in two days (July 15 and July 16).

According to sources, over 20,00,000 SIM users left Dhaka in next three days--from July 17 to July 19. 

The sources, however, said that more than 60,00,000 to 80,00,000 people left Dhaka in last five days as many other people, who do not use mobile phones, also left Dhaka for their village homes.

In addition, long tail back was seen on different highways adding extra sufferings to home going people. 

Mohammad Jasim, who was moving to Habiganj with his family to celebrate Eid, said they had decided to leave Dhaka during this relaxed time of restrictions.

But it was noticed that none of them was using face mask.

The situation was almost the same for many families at the Saidabad bus terminal.

On the other hand, the Covid-related health safety rules are hardly followed by people at launch terminals as water vessels allowed excess passengers.

While visiting Dhaka River Port Terminal, commonly known as Sadarghat launch terminal, in the afternoon, it was found that the holidaymakers travelling by different launch services.

"I'm leaving Dhaka for my village home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha to avoid the last-hour hassle," said Md Abdul Aziz Biswas, on a Barisal-bound passenger launch accompanied by his four-member family.

Visiting the Sadarghat Lunch Terminal last week, the state minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury warned of taking tough action against launch operators or passengers in case of violating the health-safety protocol.

However, the staffers of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority were seen checking passengers for face masks before allowing them inside the terminal.

Launch operators say they make sure that each passenger sits on a marked place of a launch dock as part of the government's health-safety directive while travelling.

Meanwhile, people are thronging in  shopping malls and markets to buy their necessary stuff, ignoring health-safety rules.