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Seizure drive fails to cut number of rickshaws

SyedTashfin Chowdhury
The recent drive to seize illegal rickshaws drove some rickshawpullers out of the city for some time but most of them have already come back as the owners managed to keep the forged and duplicated licence plates and blue-books intact.
The city has 79,616 licensed rickshaws but the actual number is not less than three lakh. Most of the rickshaws ply without licence or with duplicated licence plates and other documents, thanks to the absence of proper monitoring.
Rickshaw-pullers allege that many rickshaws with valid licences were also seized during the drive against unlicensed rickshaws.
Thousands of rickshaws have • licences, which were not renewed in the last five years. "A lot of time is wasted while standing in queue to gqt the licence renewed, "said Idris, who pulls a rickshaw with an outdated licence plate.
According to Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) rules, the rickshaw owners must renew their licence every year at a fee ofTk482.
The efforts to reduce the number of rickshaws went in vain as rickshaws continue to swarm the city streets with the emergence of some illegal rickshaw associations who provide the pullers with duplicated licence numbers and blue-books.
A number of such associations are actively backed by influential people including the ruling party leaders, sources said.
Among them, ’Muktijoddha Rickshaw Samobaya Samiti’ and ’Dhaka Mohanagar Rickshaw Samobaya Samiti’ are engaged in ’legalising’ rickshaws through a simple procedure and in exchange for nominal charges.
A rickshaw owner can easily procure a licence along with the blue-book from these associations at Tk 250 to Tk 450. On the other hand, procuring a legal licence from the city corporation costs Tk 4,000toTk6,000.
These associations gave ’licence’ to about 2 lakh rickshaws in the city, sources added.
DCC officials however said they woul d not all ow any rickshaw to ply without DCC-approved licence.
"Such illegal rickshaws would be seized and confiscated wherever they are found/ said Moynal Haque Khan, deputy chief revenue officer, DCC.
The so-called rickshaw cooperative associations also provide easy loans to poor pullers to buy a rickshaw, somerickshaw-pullerssaicl
"I bought this rickshaw two months back," said a rickshawpuller operating with a Muktijoddha Rickshaw Samobaya Samiti licence plate.
"If my rickshaw is seized, I would lose the money, the rickshaw and the collateral," he said, hoping that he would not fall a victim of the rickshaw seizure drive.
There arc allegations that a section of rickshaw owners run several rickshaws with same licence. They just duplicate the numbers and other documents.
"At least five rickshaws can be found operating with the same licence number," said another puller on condition of anonymity.
He said the DCC should give valid licence to the rickshaws distributed from these associations to protect the poor rickshaw-pullers.