Public thoroughfares

What happens is that in most cases, a stage would be erected in the middle of the street on a bamboo platform and chairs laid out in rows for the audience in front of it. When the programme begins, apart from the audience, passers-by throng the place crowding it all around.

And that's exactly what the assortment of pictures on the front page of Tuesday's Daily Star portrays. The cultural wing of ruling BNP erected a stage right in the middle of street that leads to the busy Sadarghat launch terminal in old Dhaka, to hold a commemorative meeting. The photos also showed how oblivious the organisers were to the hardship the launch passengers had to go through, not to forget the terrible traffic jam such an irrational action created in the vicinity. For a handful of people, thousands were forced to go through terrible difficulties.

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As it is, illegal encroachments of roads and pavements have made travelling an arduous task. Roads are already burdened; faulty construction of damaged roads is rampant; and construction materials are lying on the street-shoulders. After all these, how could one look kindly on any further invasion of thoroughfares? One should hold rallies or demonstrations at designated spots, not on the streets. We simply fail to understand how Dhaka City Corporation allowed such a violation of rules? On a second thought, the question of seeking and granting permission shouldn't arise at all. Because sanctity of the road should be a guaranteed thing; impingement should be automatically ruled out.