Beheading is not the cure for headaches

People without any sort of job skill can pull a rickshaw to earn their livelihood and maintain their families without looking towards the government for employment. Self-employment as a rickshaw driver is an effective alternative to begging or indulging in criminal activities. As it is, we have enough of people involved in criminal activities. It is very easy to render more than a million rickshaw pullers jobless in the name of making Dhaka roads jam-free, but it is certainly difficult for any government to find jobs for the millions at a moment's notice. It is estimated that about 5 million people are dependent on the income from rickshaw pulling and another 5 million depend on rickshaws as their only affordable mode of transport. The non-polluting and environment friendly characteristics of rickshaws has induced many developed countries like the US, Germany, and Greece to introduce rickshaws or bicycle taxis as they call them, in a number of their modern cities.

Against this trend in developed countries we, an LDC country, are gradually banning rickshaws from roads at the behest of the World Bank, and forcing millions out of a job. The government is creating a situation which will be too difficult for them to handle. Initially the so-called VIP road was freed from rickshaws and now from December 17 the entire Mirpur Road from Amin Bazar to Azimpur has been made a rickshaw-free zone. Thus the capital city of Dhaka has been divided into three sections: Eastern Dhaka (east of the VIP road), Mid-Dhaka (area sandwiched between VIP and Mirpur Road), and Western Dhaka (west of Mirpur Road).

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Ours is an independent and sovereign country. We achieved independence after winning a bloody war and in the process we lost 3 million lives. And yet, at the desire of the World Bank, we banned non-polluting environment friendly rickshaws from VIP Road and Amin Bazar to Azimpur, without thinking of the consequences. It is said that the World Bank has a larger plan to eliminate rickshaws from 8 major roads (120 km) of Dhaka city to make room for motor vehicles. Nevertheless the government in January last year banned polythene and two-stroke auto-rickshaws and almost saved Dhaka from smoke and noise. The same government of the people, by the people and for the people is now banning the non-polluting and environment friendly rickshaws from Dhaka roads to increase movements of motor vehicles and with resultant noise and smoke pollution.

With one stroke of the pen the city fathers caused untold hardship to the poorest and most vulnerable section of the society and reduced mobility of the economically middle class but high class voters. Banning rickshaws from Mirpur Road made movement of common people not only difficult but also expensive. In order to get this unpopular action accepted by people the authorities dangled a carrot by announcing introduction of 40 double deckers on the Mirpur Road for free ride for a limited period. This action may have solved problems for the users of Mirpur Road to some extent, but it has done nothing to redress the sufferings of people residing in and around the Satmasjid Road.

The gradual banning of rickshaws from Dhaka roads, as prescribed by WB, made rickshaw pullers feel "being hit below the belt" and they express their feelings loudly. Most of such comments can be heard while waiting in a queue to cross the Mirpur Road going from Dhanmondi to Green Road and vice versa through the only crossing allowed for rickshaws at Road 6. The aggrieved comments of rickshaw pullers remind the passengers of the unpleasant experiences of BNP during 1991-96, for eviction of the hawkers from the footpaths of Dhaka and along with that they evicted themselves from the City Corporation office. They lost miserably to Awami League in city corporation election and subsequent by-elections. Now they have started eliminating rickshaws from Dhaka roads at the behest of the World Bank and God only knows whom they will eliminate next.

The VIP road was made rickshaw free much earlier and yet almost every alternative day we see pictures and reports in print and electronic media of traffic jams in VIP road. The authorities tried to overcome traffic jam with Mohakhali flyover to no avail.

However the non-polluting rickshaws were singled out as the culprit for jams on Dhaka roads. Our city fathers lost sight of the fact that every city of the world leaves approximately 25 per cent area for roads when leaving space for road in Dhaka. It is only 7 per cent and still we want smooth traffic movement similar to that of other cities of the world by banishing rickshaws.

The population explosion and the area of the city increased faster and so is the demand for transport. The "demand and supply" theory has come into effect as such. The demand for suitable transports made many to see profits in investment in transport sector. The banks also smelled profit and started offering loan for investment in transport sector. Availability of reconditioned motor vehicles and bank loans made upper middle class people to go for more than one car and contributed their share in jamming the roads. Sudden increase in number of cars resulted in appointing fresh and inexperienced drivers. The inexperienced drivers and unlimited registration of motor vehicles by the authorities contributed in road jamming. Besides, every day we see advertisements in newspapers announcing the introduction of newer and more modern buses, cars, and other motorised transport services like CNG auto-rickshaws. All these have contributed to crowding the road. Poor rickshaws got the blame and were punished ex parte. But we have to understand that the solution does not rest only in banning the rickshaws from Dhaka roads. It needs something more. The belated realisation of the authorities made them thinking of constructing more flyovers and underground tunnels for easing the traffic.

We all know that since independence, the demand for electricity has increased manifold. All the consecutive government have tried and increased production of electricity to a large extent but failed to eliminate vexatious load-shedding. Of late they have realised that the amount of electricity produced in the country couldn't be distributed due to paucity of transmitting line. Similarly, we need more roads to have jam free movement. Rickshaw banning is not the panacea, as has been amply proved in rickshaw free VIP road. Therefore we have to increase road area matching the size of the city and limit the number of vehicles using the city roads. It may be mentioned here that with the opening of Mohakhali flyover, the cantonment road has been closed to the public, and thus we have decreased instead of increased effective road area. Just because it is impossible to increase the road area of Dhaka now, and also because it is impossible to restrict the number of vehicles now using the roads, we should not ban rickshaws and render millions of rickshaw pullers jobless and push them towards hunger, and make an equal number suffer for want of suitable transport. In view of this, I suggest the following steps to be taken immediately to ease the Dhaka traffic to give relief to suffering commuters until a permanent solution is found:

1) Immediate re-opening of the cantonment roads for the public use. Depending on the road capacity the cantonment board may issue permits to the users of cantonment roads at a fee for maintenance of the roads.

2) The rickshaws may be allowed to cross Mirpur Road at following points:

a) From Lalmatia Road 5 to Manik Mia Avenue;

b) From Dhanmondi Road 11 to Panthapath;

c) From Dhanmondi Road 9 to Kalabagan;

d) From Dhanmondi Road 6 to Green Road;

e) From Dhanmondi Road 3 to Green Road;

f) From Dhanmondi Road 1 to New Elephant Road.

3) Make it obligatory for taxis and CNGs to travel short distances. Any refusal to do so would cancel route permit issued. No motorised vehicle should be able to refuse to ply short distances, e.g. New Market and Dhanmondi.

4) Make driving licenses with photo for the rickshaw drivers compulsory. This measure alone will effectively limit the number of unauthorised rickshaws plying the Dhaka roads. Presently the license issued by the City Corporation for one rickshaw is used for several others, but the driving license for individuals with photograph pasted on it cannot be used by other drives. City Corporation may restrict the number of rickshaw driving licenses matching the number of licenses issued for rickshaws.

The author is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.