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Launch disasters: A recurring nightmare
"Overloading, apathy blamed for disaster". This was the caption of the news on the capsized launch in DS. Ilie point that caught my attention was "apathy". It is true that human disaster of such magnitude calls for a national mourning in any compassionate society. We are immune to such emotions perhaps because of the recurrence of this accidents and the victims are from the poor strata of our society.
These people make mass, overload vehicles, but does not have any say in our politics or society. Their vote counts but not their voice. Since our apathetic authority and greedy transport owners are not going to take any heed from these disasters, we have to educate our people about these disasters. At least half of the people who died on that fateful night were probably bound for a different launch. They boarded this launch, even though they saw that this launch was overloaded.
‘ We have to create a mass awareness campaign to prevent people from boarding packed vehicles, be it a bus or a launch. Our print and electronic media should take tire lead. If we want to prevent this epidemic we have to start educating people now. If people know their rights as a passenger and a customer, I am sure authority and transport owners have to bow down to take necessary steps to at least decrease the rate of these fatalities.
Ujjwal Dhar
New England Medical Center, Washington Street, Boston
In Bangladesh we aU seem to be too helpless to find a way to stop the frequent tragic recurrence of the "launch disaster" tiespite all apparent efforts by everyone concerned! The front pages of Ute Daily Star, like all other national dailies, came up with full details of the latest camage and once again every conscious citizen of this country is shocked at the colossal loss of lives.
BBC. both in its English and Bangla service has been covering the tragic event extensively including interviews of the minister concerned, high academics (associate professor /specialist on the subject) and observers.
We understand that accidents of this nature cannot be altogether eliminated and absolute safety is not achievable, but after such series of incidents we must consider the matter seriously. What is wrong with us? And how can we allow such similar disasters to continue to happen in one of our most important modes of transport system.
Inquiries and expert opinions on tills subject already identified the probable causes for such disasters. They are structural failure,
human error or failure, overloading, foul weather etc.
The cause of tire recent incident apparently is the vessel was sucked in to a big 'whirl-pool' due to flash-flood and nature of the river in that particular area. Allegedly that similar tragedies also occurred in the same place in past. Some of the survivors said it was overloading as well as the callousness on the part of mas-ters/navigators.
Now. whatever the reasons are the point is we do not want such accidents anymore.
Will the ministry concerned do anything about it?
Z. Rahman
Gulshan, Dhaka
The dailies say that passenger overloading, faulty design, absence of management at Sadarghat are the main causes for continuous launch disasters. The unofficial claim is that 600 people disappeared in this recent accident. And our Shipping Minister reportedly told that matters related to launch disasters are beyond his
control. If it is so then why is he there in the cabinet?
Is there any legislator who can ask the Prime minister that why her government is failing to over come such disasters? As usual the government has set up two enquiry committees to counter the immediate public outrage. And we all know that after sometime this issue will be forgotten just like in the cases of many disasters in the past. This useless exercise takes place after every launch disaster that costs hundreds of human lives. The irony is that nobody wants to do anything about it except for uttering a few words of sympathy for the grieving family.
In my opinion the Prime Minister after removing this incompetent Shipping Minister should introduce a system where cargo is shipped in separate launches/barges and where passenger will not be allowed. This used to be the practice during the British era. Cargo loaded barges were tugged by toe boats to various destinations. I suggest that proper inspection team should be employed to check the vessels from over loading.
Wali
Dhaka
Yet another launch disaster takes place. This time it is more tragic in terms of the number of deaths. A far lesser death toll in the Bali bomb blast has caused a nation wide shock and grief in Australia. A loss of life of this magnitude would have called for a nation wide mourning in any developed country and the head of the concerned authority would surely have resigned. A major investigation would have been ensued. Remedial actions would be taken to avert recurrence of such incident in the future.
Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, none of these will happen because death of a few hundreds is a normal event here. After the last launch mishap few months ago, the authority promised to take stern measures to avert such incidents. Like many othei promises, this one also remained unfulfilled. After any such tragic accident, the authority promises preventive measures, an investigation committee is set up, the deadline for submission of the committee report is extended a few times, and when the report is finally submitted to the authority, we hear about the assurances of implementation of committee recommendations. But it never happens. The report gathers dust and we soon forget about the incident except only those families who lost their loved ones.
How many thousands of lives must perish in launch disasters before anyone takes the necessary measures.
K M Zubair Sadeque
Dhaka