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Police ride on public vehicles

Owners get no compensation for usage or damage

Mukhlesur Rahman
Lacking adequate number of vehicles, police stations of Dhaka Metropolitan Police mostly use requisitioned vehicles that torment vehicle owners as the authorities do not pay any compensation.
DMP sources said the police stations need over 500 vehicles a day for smooth operation but they only have 132 vehicles of their own and the rest 368 vehicles are collected through either one-day requisitions or regular requisitions.
• DMP sources said most of the vehicles of police stations are very old and are broken down most of the times. They said 37 vehicles out of the 132 are reserved for the officers-in-charge of police stations.
On August 18, 265 vehicles were requisitioned for DMP alone and excluding these, two to three,vehicles were requisitioned by each of
the 37 police stations In the capital.
The police stations maintain around 225 patrol teams and over 100 check posts across the city by mobilising every day around 7,000 police personnel from the barracks, public order management (POM) in Mirpur and the police stations.
Vehicle owners alleged that the DMP authorities do not pay compensation for requisitioning vehicles and using them or for any damage done to the vehicle when it was being used by the state.
They do not even pay for the drivers' and their helpers'food, they alleged.
An office bearer of a pick-up van association told The Daily Star that since 2002 they have been letting two police stations use four of their pick-up vans as requisitioned vehicles so that they leave their other vehicles running on four routes in the capital. rr\uri rnuc iu
He said the DMP authorities never pay them anything and on the contrary they have to pay bribes to get their other vehicles released when policemen stop them to requisition them.
According to vehicle requisition and compensation rules, 2006 of DMP, the DMP commissioner will form a committee including joint commissioner of traffic and an officer not below the rank of assistant director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority. This Compensation Fixation Committee will determine the amount of money the owners of requisitioned vehicles would get after considering seat capacity of the vehicle, type of the vehicle and other things. The committee is also assigned to fix the amounts to be paid to the driver and the helper of a requisitioned vehicle.
However, the compensation fixation committee in its meeting on July 2, 2008 fixed daily Tk 1,000 compensation for a bus, Tk 700 for a minibus or a truck with five tonne capacity, Tk 600 for a microbus and small truck and Tk 400 for a small vehicle (human haulier) or a taxi. Tk 50 was fixed for each driver and helper of the vehicles, DM P sources said.
The DMP authorities, however, do not pay the owners. let alone the ^rivers and helpers, vehicle owners claimed.
Deputy Commissioner Motor Transport office sources said due to fund constraints they cannot compensate the vehicle owners concerned but they are paying the driversand helpers.