The government has taken an initiative to amend the ‘Road Transport Act, 2018’. The Road Transport and Bridges Ministry prepared a draft of the proposed amended law.
The Road Transport and Highways Division of the ministry already uploaded the draft on its website for public opinion. There is scope for giving opinion on the amended law till May 13. The draft was also sent to several ministries for their opinions.
Md Nazrul Islam, Secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division, said, “We are going to amend the Road Transport Act, 2018. We are taking public opinion as per the rules. After taking opinion, we will place the draft in the inter-ministerial meeting. Later, it will be sent to the Cabinet Division for its approval.”
The ministry proposed 29 amendments that mainly deal with fines and sentences.
The ‘Road Transport Act’ was introduced following the death of two students in a road crash on July 29 in 2008. The two students were waiting on a footpath in the capital city of Dhaka for bus to return home from their college. A bus driven recklessly by the assistant of a driver ran over them. The incident led the students to forge a tougher movement which drew the sympathy of the people.
Against this backdrop, the law was passed in the Parliament in September 2018. Although the gazette notification in this regard was issued on October 8 that year, the law came into effect on November 1 in 2019.
Sources said the government has taken the initiative for amending the law following repeated demands from the transport owners and workers. The transport workers called strike several times demanding amendment in the law. The transport associations had placed a proposal for changing 34 sections of the law. The proposals include making all offences under the law bailable, reducing the amount of fines stipulated under different sections and lowering the minimum educational qualification required for driving licences.
Ali Imam Majumder, a former Cabinet Secretary, said it is usual to have loopholes in the law as it was introduced hastily. Amendments may be required. But a strict law is required to maintain discipline in the transport sector. If the government had taken a strict role regarding the discipline, the basic spirit of the law could yet be upheld introducing a number of amendments, he added.
He also said that the transport owners and workers must understand that the sector is not above the law. Many people are dying in road mishaps every day. If the Road Transport Act is amended, the basic spirit should not be compromised, he opined.
As per the section 105, if anybody gets seriously injured or killed in a road accident, it would be considered an offence under the relevant sections of the Penal Code, 1860. But the draft relaxed the punishment. The sections 84, 98 and 105 are non-bailable, but as per the draft, the sections 84 and 98 would be bailable. Section 84 deals with the punishment for illegally changing the technical specifications of a vehicle, while section 98 deals with the punishment for accident due to overloading and reckless driving.
As per section 25 (2) of the law, if any employee provides fitness certificate of an unfit vehicle, the employee will face departmental action. But draft excluded it and said ‘faulty vehicles must not be given fitness certificates by any means’.