Rush for home ahead of Eid

As the rush for going home outside Dhaka starts, the first signs of likely disaster are already showing. On Sunday, a reporter saw launches taking on passengers beyond their capacity.  Earlier in the week we also heard of battered, unfit buses being given facelifts to evade authorities. Only yesterday, five people were killed and ten injured when a Dhaka-bound launch crashed into a steamer in Kirtonkhola river.

While the buses were given facelifts to avoid the police, our report on Monday shows the overloading of passengers was being done while members of the Bangladesh Inland Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the police were present. The BIWTA, however, maintains that all necessary steps are being taken to check overloading.

Eid holidays are when the largest number of people in the country is on a rush to go home. In this situation, it is the responsibility of the authorities like BIWTA, BRTA and the police to make sure the officials are doing their job properly. The responsibility lies too with the transport owners who, to make the most of the Eid demand, are being seen to neglect safety and compliance. We ask the government to make sure that the checks are in place to stop overloading and plying of unfit vehicles, both on the road and waterways. We also urge the people in rush to get home to consider the risks they take when knowingly getting aboard unfit and overloaded vehicles in order to get home faster.