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Roads just as risky as before
FROM PAGE 1
Following the demonstration, lawmakers hastily passed the Road Transport Act-2018, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a 17-point directive, and police observed multiple “traffic weeks” to bring discipline to roads.
A Dhaka court in December last year handed down life sentences to two drivers and a helper of Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan in connection with the incident, saying, “The callousness of drivers and helpers in the transport sector is causing many deaths which must be stopped.”
But the numbers of road crashes and fatalities increased last year compared to the previous year.
According to police data, 4,138 people were killed in 4,147 road accidents last year. The previous year, 2,609 road crashes claimed 2,635 lives. The data was prepared based on cases filed with different police stations across the country.
However, the figures are significantly lower than those of other road-safety organisations.
The rising trend of road crashes remained almost the same until late March when the government suspended operations of public transport to contain the spread of Covid-19. Public transport resumed operations on June 1.
TWO MAJOR INITIATIVES YET TO BEAR FRUIT
The parliament passed the RTA in September 2018, but the government did not make the law effective till November last year.
When the government took initiative to enforce the law, transport associations called strikes demanding that the government does not penalise drivers of commercial vehicles even if they violate some key sections of the act until June this year.
In the face of their demand, the government decided not to penalise those who drive heavy vehicles with licences meant for light or medium vehicles until June this year and later extended the relaxation for another year.
It also waived the late fees for not renewing driving licences and fitness documents of vehicles till December this year.
Meanwhile, a committee led by former Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan was formed last year to give recommendations for curbing road crashes and bringing discipline to the sector.
The committee in April last year gave 111 recommendations and a taskforce led by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan was formed in October last year to implement those.
The taskforce held its only meeting in November to include three more members in it. It assigned four secretaries to recommend and plan how the recommendations could be implemented. No further movement of the taskforce was visible.
WHAT AN EXPERT SAYS?
Prof Shamsul Hoque, also a member of the taskforce, said although the authority had taken some initiatives following the movement, but did not take steps to reform the sector.
“Bus routes rationalisation and introduction of bus franchise system are needed in Dhaka city to bring discipline to the public transport system. But these were not done,” he said.
Rather, more buses were given route permits and the number of motorcycles is increasing in an unregulated way, which are further complicating the situation.
As per the planned bus franchise system, all buses operating in the city will be brought under six companies and by route rationalisation, and all the bus routes in the capital and adjacent areas would be brought under 22 major routes.
He said “ad-hoc” basis steps were taken after any major incident, but no steps were taken to strengthen the capacity of BRTA and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA).
“Such ad-hoc initiatives have no continuation, and therefore, no sustainability,” he added.
“It takes time and power to make a reform. The government had the opportunity but unfortunately, it did not take it,” he added.
Prof Shamsul said even if the construction of six metro rail lines was completed within 2035, around 40 percent passengers will still be relying on public transports like buses. “But the authorities are not giving proper consideration to it,” he added.

Hezbollah accuses Israel of fabricating border clash
Agencies
Beirut, Lebanon - Hezbollah denied its fighters staged an “infiltration attempt” that led to clashes with Israeli forces on Monday calling the Israeli account a move to create “false victories”.
The Lebanese armed group also vowed revenge for a Hezbollah member killed in a suspected Israeli air strike in Syria last week saying a response against Israel was “coming for sure”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disputed the armed group’s denial of any border incident, adding “Hezbollah should know that it is playing with fire.”
The Israeli military said earlier three to five Hezbollah fighters crossed into the disputed Shebaa Farms area that is occupied by Israeli forces, and they were repulsed after Israeli troops opened fire. Shebaa Farms was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and is claimed by Lebanon.
But Hezbollah denied it carried out a raid over the southern border saying the incident was “from one side only, from the anxious enemy” who opened fire first.
“All the enemy media claims about thwarting an infiltration operation from Lebanese territory into occupied Palestine … is absolutely not true,” a Hezbollah statement said.
The armed group attributed the incident to “the state of terror experienced by the Zionist occupation army and its settlers at the Lebanese border” over an expected response to the killing of the Hezbollah fighter.
A resident of the town of Khiam, 5km (2 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border, told Al Jazeera she heard about two dozen explosions and witnessed large columns of smoke rising near Mount Hermon on Monday.
An Israeli shell smashed in a civilian home, narrowly missing a family in the house at the time, but nobody was hurt.
“The shelling that took place today on the village of Al-Habbariyeh and damage to a civilian’s house will not be tolerated at all,” Hezbollah said.
The Lebanese group added retaliation for the killing of the Hezbollah fighter in Syria last Monday was “coming for sure”.
“Our response to the martyrdom of the mujahid brother Ali Kamel Mohsen - who was martyred in the Zionist aggression on the outskirts of Damascus International Airport - is definitely coming and the Zionists only have to wait for the punishment for their crimes,” the statement said.
Hezbollah parliamentarian Walid Sukkarieh said Monday’s incident was a “setback for the Israeli army and ... Israeli society’s confidence in their army.”
The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said troops foiled a Hezbollah attack a few metres over the Blue Line, which demarcates Israel’s 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon. There were no casualties among Israeli forces.
Andrea Tenenti, the spokesperson for UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), said its commander, Major-General Stefano Del Col, “is in contact with both parties to assess the situation and decrease tension”.
“He urges maximum restraint,” Tenenti told Al Jazeera.
Karim Makdissi, an associate professor of international relations at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera that Hezbollah was setting the stage for a more significant response to the slaying of one of its fighters in Syria, though he ruled out a large-scale conflict.
“They’ve denied that they did anything this time round and therefore they reserve the right - and even have an obligation - to respond in the future,” Makdissi said. “They’ve gotten good at this brand of psychological warfare - saying to the Israelis that they should wait, with the knowledge that a response will eventually come. It’s sort of like a show: ‘come back tomorrow and see what happens’.”
Israel and Hezbollah fought to a stalemate in a month-long war in Lebanon in 2006. Hezbollah was able to overwhelm Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon and attack military and civilian targets, undermining support for the war inside Israel.
“I don’t see either side having a particular interest in another war,” said Makdissi. “There can be token events but that’s about it. Hezbollah will feel the need to respond to maintain this deterrence mechanism it has built up over years.”
Tension has risen along Israel’s northern frontier with Lebanon and Syria, including the occupied Golan Heights, after the Hezbollah fighter was killed in an apparent Israeli air attack near Damascus last Monday.
“What happened in Syria is an aggression that led to the death of Ali Kamil Mohsen,” Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qasim said in a televised interview on Sunday.
Wiam Wahab, a former Lebanese minister and a well-connected pro-Hezbollah politician, said Monday’s incident “was not an operation” by Hezbollah but may have been a reconnaissance mission.