Paying heed to old transport syndicate’s unjust demands would be inappropriate

The cradle of the July uprising was the 2018 road safety movement. This movement began across the capital when two school students were killed after being run over by a bus. At that time, two buses of the Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan (currently Poristhan Paribahan) were in a deadly race, and while competing, one bus mounted the pavement in the Staff Road area of Airport Road, killing two students and injuring several others. After this tragic accident, in reply to a query of a journalist, Shahjahan Khan, the then Shipping Minister and a key figure in the transport sector, said with a smile, “An accident is an accident.” It was because of Minister Shahjahan Khan’s indifference towards the students’ deaths in the accident that the students became enraged. The movement spread to almost every educational institution in the capital.

The then Awami League government brutally suppressed this movement of the students. The infamous helmet squad of the Chhatra League, the armed cadres of a terrorist group of transport sector with the help of police mercilessly beat and bloodied the school and college students. From that time on, people of all classes and professions began to become angry with the Sheikh Hasina government. By suppressing that road safety movement, Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League government turned themselves into enemies of an entire generation of school–college students. By taking responsibility for a highly controversial transport leader, Sheikh Hasina turned the entire Awami League into the enemy of a generation. Its ultimate consequence was the July 2024 uprising.

However, after the suppression of the students’ road safety movement in 2018 and the strong reaction from civil society, the then Sheikh Hasina government was ultimately forced to bring some reforms to the Road Transport Act. As a result, it became possible to curb, at least to some extent, the extreme anarchy of reckless bus and truck drivers on the roads.

Therefore, the demand to dismiss the reforms to the Road Transport Act — which came as a result of the students’ road safety movement of 2018 — by labelling it as a ‘fascist government–enacted’ law is nothing more than an attempt by the old vested transport syndicate, which has held the transport sector hostage for years, to perpetuate accidents, anarchy, and disorder in the sector.

We have seen that from 1996 to 2001, Khandaker Enayet Ullah was the General Secretary of the Dhaka Road Transport Association and the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Road Transport Association. After the change of power in the 2001 election, Saiful Islam replaced Enayet Ullah. When the Awami League–led grand alliance government came to power again in 2009, Enayet Ullah returned to his former post. But after the July 2024 uprising, Saiful Islam again replaced Enayet Ullah. Therefore, it is clear how the country’s transport syndicate has been operating and who has been running it for almost the last two decades.

In 2018, Khandaker Enayet Ullah strongly opposed the reforms to the Road Transport Act. He threatened the government, called strikes in the name of the Owners–Workers Unity Council, and held public life hostage. After the 2018 road safety movement, Shahjahan Khan lost his ministerial post. However, he held a joint press conference with Khandaker Enayet Ullah opposing the enactment of strict laws to prevent road anarchy and accidents. His demands were that even if the driver was responsible for the accident, he could not be held directly accountable; the case must be bailable; and the vehicle involved in the accident must be returned to its owner instead of being kept in police custody. Although civil society demanded proper training for drivers and a fixed uniform, Shahjahan Khan outright rejected it.

Today, Saiful Islam is also raising the same demands. He is also calling for a transport strike to hold public life hostage and to realise unjust demands. Considering the cause of an accident, a driver will face charges. Now, if two bus drivers, while racing on the road, cause an accident due to reckless overtaking, that clearly falls under the category of murder. The case against such a bus driver cannot be bailable.

In Bangladesh, most road accidents occur due to drivers’ reckless overtaking. In all researches conducted so far on road transport, reckless overtaking has emerged as the main cause of road accidents. But the transport syndicate, on the contrary, demands the freedom to engage in such reckless overtaking on the roads. This is because 95% of bus owners do not employ bus drivers and assistants with a monthly salary through an appointment letter. They operate buses on a per-trip contract basis. The more trips, the more income. As a result, although a driver on a long-distance route is normally supposed to make at best 10 trips a week, owners can force them to make 15 to 20 trips.

In city services in the capital, owners hand over vehicles to drivers and helpers after taking advance deposit money. All day, deadly races take place on the roads to recover the deposit and earn extra income. There is no doubt that the transport syndicate is opposing the 2018 law for the sake of maximising profit with minimal investment, ultimately forcing the public transport drivers, employed without appointment letters, work inhumanely hour after hour. Because according to the law, if vehicles operate following the rules, profits are lower. If there is no extra income, owners are even reluctant to pay subscription money to the syndicate. Not only are the so-called transport leaders involved in this syndicate, but also a corrupt section of the government administration is actively engaged, which is, in a sense, an open secret. Even if the government changes, this transport syndicate does not break; only the person leading the syndicate changes.

The leaders of this syndicate never want the introduction of appointment letters in transport sector, training, or an improved life for a driver. Their demands never include measures to improve the living standards of the transport workers. They simply want to protect their illegal income stream by keeping the workers in inhuman living conditions. That is why they want weak laws in the case of road accidents — laws that they can flout to hold the transport sector hostage and keep their illegal income flowing.

Every year in Bangladesh, more people die in road accidents than in many wars. Countless people become disabled. In most cases so far, ordinary people have not received any remedy for road accidents. In this situation, it would in no way be appropriate for the government to take into account the unjust demands of the transport syndicate that has been entrenched for many years. Rather, the government should focus on creating an even stronger legal framework to organise the road management system.