Responding to questions from opposition in parliament, Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader has said former shipping minister and transport workers' leader Shajahan Khan is heading the panel to bring back order to roads due to his experience.
“A specific individual should not be the concern on this matter. His name has been proposed as an experienced person,” he told Monday’s (Feb 18) session.
During the question-and-answer session, opposition Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam asked, “How is it possible to curb the Yaba menace with [former Cox’s Bazar MP] Abdur Rahman Badi and bring order to roads with Shajahan Khan?”
He said that Shajahan had created a firestorm when “he said differentiating between a cow and a goat is sufficient for getting a driving license”.
In response to Imam’s question, Quader said that Shajahan was chosen to lead the panel as an experienced person.
“No one, who attended the meeting, opposed the proposal … The individual is not the concern. What matters is the recommendations the panel makes to bring order to roads,” he said.
On Sunday, Quader announced the formation of two committees— one to bring back order to roads led by Shajahan and the other headed by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to find solution to issues raised by transport owners and workers about the Road Transport Act 2018.
Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation Executive President Shajahan is leading a 15-member panel With Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association President Mashiur Rahman Ranga in the committee as a member.
The Jatiya Party secretary general, who served the last government as the state minister for local government and cooperatives, is currently the chief whip of the official opposition in parliament.
Transport owners’ association Secretary General Khandaker Enayet Ullah, workers’ federation General Secretary Osman Ali, columnist Syed Abul Maksud, and Nirapad Sarak Chai Andolan Chairman Ilias Kanchan are also in the committee.
The others are two representatives of truck and covered-van owners and workers, and one each of BRTA, NGO BRAC, BUET’s Accident Research Institute, and Road Transport and Highways Division, deputy inspector general of Highway Police, deputy inspector general of police (operations) and an additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
The committee will submit a report within 14 work days, according to Quader.
Lawmaker Shajahan Khan was a divided figure during his tenure as a minister due to his dual role as a transport workers’ leader and a minister, which was frequently cited as a conflict of interest whenever transport reforms were discussed.
Following the deaths of filmmaker Tareque Masud and ATN News CEO Mishuk Munier in a 2011 road accident, Shajahan said a driver does not need to be educated to get a driving licence.
“If a driver can sign his name, can understand traffic signs and signals, can differentiate between a cow and a goat and has good driving skills, what is the problem in giving him a licence?,” he said during a press conference.
In August 2018, after two schoolchildren were run over by a bus on the Airport Road, several reporters asked him about the lax regulations for bus drivers being a huge factor for road accidents, which the minister appeared to laugh off.
When a video of him laughing off the deaths of two went viral on the internet, there were widespread calls for his resignation, soon followed by a spontaneous protest by students demanding road safety.
Following the protesters’ demands, the government passed the long-awaited Road Transport Act, but the transport workers have objected to several parts of the law and are demanding they be cancelled.
The demands include making all offences under the Road Transport Act bailable, the cancellation of the provision that allows a worker to be fined Tk 500,000 for involvement in a road crash, and lowering minimum educational qualification required for obtaining driving licences from class VIII to class V.
Transport strike for these demands created public sufferings across Bangladesh in October last year. Many blame the presence of transport owners and workers’ leaders in the government for the failure to bring order to the transport sector.