Nilphamari BRTA office sans registration officer

The post of assistant director (AD) of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in the district town, the officer authorised to issue registration documents for vehicles, has remained vacant for over a year, much to the problem of motor vehicle owners.

Meanwhile, the AD of BRTA in Rangpur, who attended Nilphamari office on Wednesday every week as additional duty, was transferred to Munshiganj a month ago, adding to the problem especially against the backdrop of law enforcers' ongoing drives against unlicensed motorbikes.

"Since then, motorcycle registration has remained stopped. We are now giving only slips to vehicle owners for depositing fees in the bank, asking them to wait for getting documents until a new officer joins," said Liton Kumar, mechanical assistant of the local BRTA office.

Of the five posts of AD, vehicle inspector, upper division clerk, mechanical assistant, and office assistant of BRTA office in Nilphamari, the first three vital posts have remained vacant for a year, official sources said.

Several registration seekers alleged that owners have to pay additional Tk 2000-Tk 3000 each to brokers for 'quick service' in bank and BRTA office although the government fee for motorcycle registration ranges from Tk 13,913 to Tk 21,273 according to their strength.

Besides, the authorities selected the Brac Bank branch in Saidpur upazila, 20 kilometres from the district town, for depositing registration fees of vehicles and it causes problems for the service receivers.

"To deposit fees for my motorbike, I spent about a week at a Saidpur hotel as the queues of clients were too long," said Rezaul Karim of Rupahara village in Dimla upazila.

Some of around 600 motorcycles seized by police since start of a massive drive against unregistered bikes last month. Photo: Star

Moshiur Rahman, operation manager of Brac Bank in Saidpur, said, "We are working additional 4-5 hours daily for serving motorcycle owners. Every day 400-500 people come for the purpose but as per the software capacity, we can receive fees from 200-250 people."

He said none filed any written complaint about taking bribe by the bank employees.

Acting vehicle inspector of BRTA Nurul Islam said all the activities of local BRTA office are going on except issuance of registration documents, which will resume as soon as a new AD comes.

Denying the allegation of engaging brokers for taking additional money, he said those who have fault in documents of vehicles bring baseless complaints.

Firoz Kabir, additional superintendent of police (Sadar Circle) said they have seized 597 motorcycles since the drive against plying of unregistered motorcycles started last month.