Free highways from shops, markets

The High Court on Monday asked the government to remove all shops, markets and bazaars beside highways across the country to reduce frequent traffic accidents.
The court also asked the authorities to increase punishment of drivers for their reckless driving and make provision for setting the Secondary School Certificate as minimum educational qualification for a driver.
It also asked the government to amend the highway-related rules prohibiting any structure within 10 metres of the highways.
It also asked respondents to set up dividers on the highways, construct adequate underpasses and marking zebra crossing on other roads and ensure effective road transport and traffic management in highways connecting Dhaka to different districts.
The court also asked the government to implement the 28-point guidelines detailed on September 19, 2011 by a seven-member expert committee formed by home ministry on the court’s order to reduce the road accidents.
The National Road Safety Council led by road transport and bridges minister on several occasions ordered local administrations to remove illegal establishments and markets from all highways to check fatal accidents and ensure smooth traffic movements.
The cabinet committee on law and order issued similar directives time and again No effective measures have, however, so far been taken to clear the country’s highways, usually occupied by powerful quarters in the localities.
The High Court bench of Justice Zinat Ara and AKM Shahidul Huq passed the order in its verdict after disposing of a writ petition filed in February 2011 by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh on public interest seeking necessary directives to prevent road accidents.
The petitioner had filed the petition after 11 people were killed in a traffic accident involving the convoy of Brahmanbarhia-3 lawmaker RAM Ubaidul Muktadir Chowdhury in February 2011, said petitioner’s lawyer Manzill Murshid.
The court directive came at a time when various government actions, including ban on unfit vehicles and auto-rickshaws in highways, failed to check accidents.
The government had also set up speed breakers and rumble strips on ‘216 black spots’ identified by the Accident Research Institute on the Dhaka-Aricha highway to prevent accidents.
Government statistics showed that eight people were killed on an average in traffic accidents every day in the country while World Bank and World Health Organisation reported the death toll as 30 and 48 respectively.
On August 25, 2011, another High Court bench asked the authority not to issue driving licences without proper tests and due process of law.
In November 2011, the authority, responding to the order, had told the court that it had issued about 10,000 driving licences to lorry drivers on ‘easy terms,’ a practice that it now said had been in place from 2003.
The authority had said that the issuance of 24,000 more driving licences were under process.
It had also said that road transport system would be paralysed causing a total collapse of the food and essential supply chain if the 10,000 driving licences issued without proper tests were cancelled.
The High Court had, however, later withdrawn its order that had stayed the issuance of the 24,000 driving licences following an appeal of the authority.

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