Law-breaking pedestrians to be jailed
A pedestrian will be sentenced to a maximum six months in jail or fined Tk 200 or both if they do not use underpasses or footbridges in the capital.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police will operate mobile courts for seven days on a pilot basis from November 25 on the road stretch from Ruposhi Bangla hotel to Farmgate police box.DMP commissioner Benazir Ahmed said that before launching the mobile court, a three-day awareness-building campaign would start on Saturday.The initiative has been taken to create road safety awareness among pedestrians and motivate them to use underpasses and footbridges, said the DMP commissioner at a press briefing at its information centre.Police sources said there were four footbridges at Paribagh, Banglamotor, Daily Star and Farmgate police box points and one underpass at Karwanbazar.
Two DMP magistrates will operate mobile courts under public nuisance offences of the Penal Code 1860.DMP joint commissioner for traffic Mosleh Uddin Ahmed told New Age anyone found to have violated the law would be fined Tk 200 or sentenced to a maximum six months in jail or both.
He said pedestrians were largely responsible for traffic congestions and increasing road accidents on roads as they avoid using footbridges and underpasses.He also urged the two city corporations of Dhaka and private entrepreneurs to set up escalators on footbridges.DMP deputy commissioner (traffic-south) Khan Mohammad Rezwan said that most of the pedestrians using the busy road stretch between Karwanbazar and Sonargaon crossing were found taking a short-cut to cross the road instead of using the adjacent underpass.He said they had set up 30 signboards to make pedestrians aware of traffic rules for using underpasses and footbridges.A study conducted by the accident research institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has found that about 58 per cent of road accidents in the capital involved pedestrians.
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