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Mixed ractions over rickshaw ban


Published : 08 Jul 2019 08:50 PM | Updated : 01 Sep 2020 08:53 PM

Withdrawal of rickshaws from three main city streets from Sunday last, has created a mixed reaction among the commuters of the capital. A section of regular commuters of those streets welcomed the ban arguing that it has contributed to faster movement of vehicles in those busy streets; while some commuters vented anger over the decision as their only way of communication to take and bring back their children to and from the school.

Mentionable, in a bid to ensure vehicular movements free of traffic jam, rickshaw movement has been banned on Gabtoli to Azimpur, Science Lab to Shahbagh and Badda to Kuril streets from Sunday last. Saifuddin, a regular commuter on Kuril-Sayedabad route told the Bangladesh Post: “Although the move has nor drastically reduced the usual traffic jam on the route, vehicular movement has become comparatively faster since the ban was executed. Earlier, after getting down from flyover at Chowdhurypara, we had to face a severe traffic congestion on a regular basis; but for the last two days, the traffic flow at that point has become normal.”

Some guardians of school-going children expressed dissatisfaction over the ban as the sudden withdrawal of rickshaws from the streets has brought about untold sufferings for them. The decision to withdraw rickshaw from these busy city streets was taken in the first meeting of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) on July 3.

Sources from Dhaka North and Dhaka south city corporations, Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said that they would conduct mobile court drives at the three streets to implement the ban properly. Meanwhile, protesting the government ban, rickshaw-pullers on Monday took to streets of the capital, demanding immediate withdrawal of the ban on rickshaws on the three important streets in the capital.

Agitated rickshaw-pullers occupied the streets of Mugda, Maniknagar, Manda, Balurmath and Kamalapur and Titipara areas of the capital since the morning.
"About 3,000 rickshaw-pullers are occupying the streets. Traffic has been halted from Mugda to Maniknagar as a result,” local police station chief Proloy Kumar Saha told the media.

Witnesses said traffic was brought to a stop from Sayedabad to Rampura as the protestors occupied the capital’s Maniknagar road. National Rickshaw-Van Sramik League General Secretary Insur Ali said, “Those who are protesting are ordinary rickshaw-pullers and owners. The decision to ban rickshaws is suicidal.”

“We want a drive for the eviction of illegal rickshaws and the withdrawal of this ban. We will submit our demands to the prime minister on Jul 11.” Meanwhile, Atiqul Islam and Sayeed Khokon mayors of Dhaka’s two city corporations think that the ban would not create any negative impact on the movement of city dwellers.

Sayeed Khokon said, “There would be sufficient mass transport available on the streets.” Atiqul Islam, however, admitted that the ban might create some temporary problems for the commuters. Observing that for the sake of a permanent facility, we should compromise with some temporary problems, he said, “Maybe some commuters would face problems. But we have to overcome these temporary problems to reach the ultimate goal. We must sacrifice something to achieve a higher goal.” As per the DTCA plan, rickshaws would be gradually withdrawn from all the streets of Dhaka city.