HC asks govt to submit report on fit, unfit motor vehicles in 3 months

The High Court Division on Tuesday directed the government to submit a report within three months about the status of fitness of motor vehicles on the country’s roads after holding a nationwide survey.
Three of the respondents, the road, transport and bridge division secretary, the home secretary and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority chairman were directed to immediately form a 15-member independent national inquiry committee of experts.
The committee would be required to hold the nationwide survey to examine the external and internal fitness of vehicles on the roads for preparing the report for submission to the High Court Division.
In a separate ruling the court also asked six respondents to explain in four weeks why their inaction and failure to monitor and ensure that only motor vehicles having valid fitness certificates were on the roads would not be declared illegal.
The six respondents include, the road, transport and bridge division secretary, the home secretary and the BRTA chairman, BRTA’s director for enforcement, BRTA’s director for road safety and the inspector general of police. 
The six respondents were also asked to explain why they would not be directed to keep unfit vehicles off the roads.
A bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal issued the directives after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition of Supreme Court lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed.
Moving the petition Tanvir Ahmed submitted at the hearing that most of the accidents took place as the authorities were allowing motor vehicles lacking fitness on the roads.
He listed lack of mechanical fitness, mirrors, break lights and signaling indicators as among the deficiencies in many motor vehicles on the country’s roads. 
He also blamed seating more passengers in buses than their built-in capacity permits as the cause of creating imbalance in the public carriers often responsible for accidents. 
He categorized the deficiencies as the lack of internal and external fitness of the vehicles. 
He submitted that the authorities could not be allowed to avoid the liability of the roads accidents occurring due lack of external and internal fitness of the motor vehicles on the country’s roads.
He submitted that Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College students, Diya Khanam Mim, 17, and Abdul Karim Rajib, 19, would not have died on July 29 had the respondents examined fitness of buses and the other motor vehicles on the capital’s roads as his legal notice asked them on July 9.
He submitted that Diya and Rajib became the latest victims of road accidents that occurs quite frequently due to reckless driving often of vehicles lacking fitness. 
Diya and Rajib died on the spot and 12 other students were injured as a speedy bus of Jabal-E-Nur company coming from Mirpur ploughed through people waiting under a tree near Radisson Hotel at Kurmitola on the Airport Road to catch a bus.
Diya, daughter of Md Jahangir Alam of Mohakhali was a class XI student and Rajib, son of Nur Islam of Ashkona in the capital was a class XII student.
Their deaths in the road crash sparked students’ protest by blocking roads and smashing buses across the capital.
 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net