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People obey law, influentials break

People suffer in tailbacks, they don't

Shariful Islam and Protik Chakraborty
While common people stay stuck in the city's standstill traffic for hours sometimes, those "more equal than others” just take the wrong side of the street and drive by to dodge the tailback, with traffic police unable to do anything.
Flag-bearing huge sport utility vehicles of ministers, cars of lawmakers and top government officials, police, leaders of the ruling party and its front organisations, journalists and student buses of public universities are the main traffic rule violators, police said.
So the traffic cops do not even dare to stop these people in fear of retribution.
These privileged groups not only violate the law, but also put the law-abiding oncoming motorists at risk.
At 4:58pm on August 13, these correspondents saw a police van (Dhaka Metro Tha - 13-1674) escorting a flag-flaunting SUV (Dhaka Metro Gha - 13-6113) on the wrong side of the street in front of Ruposhi Bangla Hotel. It was unclear who was inside
the vehicle, but surely he must have been one ofthose "more equal than others".
A black private car with a sticker inscribed with "police" on it was also seen taking the wrong side around the same time at the same spot.
It has become almost a norm during the morning and evening rush.
Around 6:15pm on the same day, when traffic was at its worst, the intersection between Minto Road and Hare Road in the capital was a mess with many vehicles on the wrong side clogging up the streets.
Instead of making way for the people who were on the right side of the road and had been waiting quite a while, traffic police were seen busy trying to get the VI Ps on their way.
The Daily Star asked a number of top traffic police officials about this, but none of them made any comment.
On April 12, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police installed retractable spike strips on Hare Road on a trial basis to see if such devices work in preventing vehicles from taking the wrong side.
But the DMP removed the device after about two weeks. Police sources said they had to do so after government high-ups asked them not to use the device after the wheels of a prominent minister's SUV got ripped.
The minister even raised the issue in a cabinet meeting, sources said.
A few months ago, some Chhatra League activists beat up two traffic sergeants in two separate incidents as the police officers stopped their president and general secretary's vehicles for violating traffic rules.
Policemen on the ground said drivers of Dhaka University buses often take wrong sides.
If anyone - be it a traffic cop or any other person - causes any obstacle or protests the infraction, he has every chance of being manhandled by the students on board.
Several months ago, an ex-DU student and his father were beaten up by some DU students as they protested the university bus driving on the wrong side of Mirpur Road near Dhanmondi-6.
In a similar incident, two members of a law enforcement agency were also assaulted in Mirpur-1, university
sources said.
Right in front of a traffic sergeant at Mirpur-10, a double-decker bus of Dhaka University went on the wrong side.
"What should I do? They are the students of the country's most prestigious educational institution," the frustrated sergeant told The Daily Star.
DU acting proctor Prof Amzad Ali claimed the frequencies of such violation of traffic rules had declined after they warned the president and secretary of the bus committees last month.
He said they warned of withdrawing a bus from service if it was found driving on the wrong side. "We have also threatened the drivers with suspension."
Journalists are also among the rule breakers. Small vehicles of media houses, especially television channels, are often seen driving on the wrong side. Policemen do not dare to stop them fearing the occupants are well connected people and they could have the law enforcers transferred or even suspended.
It is not that traffic police are too bothered about vehicles running on the wrong side either. On New Eskaton Road, for instance, the law enforcers actually instruct rickshaws to take the wrong side.