BRTA drives falter

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has significantly reduced its mobile court drives against unfit and illegal vehicles as well as errant drivers since November last year, leaving the road transport sector in chaos.

Manpower shortage and relaxation of some sections of the Road Transport Act-2018, which came into effect in November, have resulted in the decline of the drives and filing of cases and imposing of fines, said BRTA officials.

The number of persons convicted and vehicles dumped by mobile courts also came down since then.

An apprehension that stringent steps may create unrest in transport sector is also a reason why the state-run organisation cannot go tough against the unfit and illegal vehicles.

As a result, the BRTA is on the verge of missing its annual target set for fiscal 2019-20.

A total of 1,000 mobile court drives were conducted and 8,000 cases were filed in the first seven months of the fiscal in Dhaka and Chattogram, against the annual target of filing 32,000 cases and conducting 3,200 drives.

A total of 33,111 cases were filed in fiscal 2018-19.

On January 29, BRTA Chairman Kamrul Ahsan faced questions over the slow pace of target implementation in this regard at a meeting of Budget Management Committee of Road Transport and Highway Division. 

Kamrul told the meeting that they could not achieve expected target as operation of mobile courts remained halted for around one month as the new law came into force. He, however, hoped to achieve the annual target, according to the meeting minutes.

Amid this situation, a huge number of vehicles without fitness clearance are operating in the country.

Following a High Court directive, BRTA in June last year submitted a report saying more than 4.58 lakh unfit vehicles were on the road and 1.68 lakh of them operated in the capital.

On February 12, BRTA submitted another report to the HC saying that only 1.65 lakh out of 4.58 lakh vehicles renewed their fitness certificates till December 30 last year.

Therefore, 2.92 lakh vehicles without valid fitness documents are plying the roads since December 30 last year. The number reached more than 4 lakh this month.

DRIVES DECREASED

There are 13 posts of executive magistrates for conducting mobile courts under BRTA's enforcement department, which is responsible for enforcing different traffic-related laws and thus bring discipline in the sector, besides police.

Out of 10 executive magistrate posts for Dhaka, one remains vacant, one magistrate did not get power for conducting mobile court while another is taking part in long-time training. On the other hand, two out of three magistrates in Chattogram do not have the power.

In this given situation, only six to seven magistrates have been conducting mobile courts in Dhaka and Chattogram for the last three months, an official of enforcement department said.

While the number of mobile court drives and cases were 194 and 2071 respectively in July last year, it came down to 133 and 864 in January this year, shows BRTA document. The number of drives and cases were 61 and 446 in November last year.

In July last year, mobile courts realised 47.21 crore in fine, jailed 24 persons and dumped 38 vehicles while they realised 19.25 lakh in fine, jailed 11 persons and dumped two vehicles last month.

In November, mobile courts realised Tk 5.17 lakh and neither gave jail term to anyone nor dumped any vehicle.

Apart from these, magistrates of district administrations, upon getting request from BRTA, conduct mobile courts in their districts.

REASONS BEHIND BRTA'S STANCE

The Jatiya Sangsad in September 2018 passed Road Transport Act providing for stringent punishment but the act was not enforced allegedly due to the opposition of road transport leaders over several sections.

When the government went to enforce the law from November last year replacing Motor Vehicles Ordinance-1983, the mobile courts did not get the authority to execute it as the Road Transport Act was not incorporated in the schedule of Mobile Court Act, 2009.

Mobile courts run by the BRTA and district administrations got the power to enforce Road Transport Act after two weeks but the courts did not get the full authorisation regarding the law.

The act's two key sections that deal with checking unauthorised modifications made to vehicles and overloading are not incorporated in the schedule of Mobile Court Act, 2009.

As a result, the mobile courts cannot check modification and overloading, let alone file cases accusing the violators and have become less effective, BRTA officials said.

Besides, the government, following huge protests from transport owners and workers in November last year, decided not to penalise commercial vehicles for violations of several key sections of the act until June this year.

As per the decisions, the authorities decided to relax several sections of the Road Transport Act and because of this, the drivers of heavy vehicles would not be penalised for driving with licences meant for light or medium vehicles and public transports would not be penalised for illegal parking.

The government already waived the dues of transport workers and owners for not renewing their licences and fitness certificates of vehicles in time.

"We impose nominal fine as they [transport workers] were given time till June," a BRTA executive magistrate said.

"Actually, we are fearful about fresh unrest in transport sector due to imposition of hefty fine," he told The Daily Star recently wishing anonymity.

"We are now giving more importance on updating documents. We want them [owners and drivers] to update their papers within the deadline," he added.

WHAT BRTA SAYS

AKM Masudur Rahman, director (enforcement) of BRTA, cited three reasons behind the decline of mobile court drives.

The reasons are: waiving the fines of vehicle owners and workers for not renewing their licences and fitness timely and allowing drivers with light licence to drive heavy vehicles till June and lack of power of mobile courts to punish for modification and overloading.

"When the new law came into force, our minister called for taking go-slow policy, so we are not taking harsh step," he told The Daily Star on February 23.

Asked about the target, he said it would be "difficult" to achieve.

BRTA Chairman Kamrul Ahsan said decline in number of executive magistrates is a reason behind decline of drives.

However, the number of drives increased from this month, he told this newspaper on February 26.

Replying to another question, he said, "We are aware of our target and would try to achieve it."