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Govt rejects Jatri Kalyan Samity's report on road accidents

Says organisation 'not registered'

Staff Correspondent
The government yesterday rejected a report from a passengers' platform that said both the numbers of road accidents and deaths during the Eid rush saw a sharp rise this year.
On Friday, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity at a press conference said at least 339 people were killed and 1,265 were injured in 277 road accidents in 13 days (June 11 to 23) during the Eid journeys this year.
A total of274 people were killed and 848 were injured in road crashes last year, up from 186 killed and 786 injured in 2016, the organisation said.
However, a press statement from the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry yesterday said the information provided by Jatri Kalyan Samity is "not correct".
Actually, 152 people were killed and 355 were injured in 103 road accidents between June 12 and 24, reads the statement.
It said the information was collected from district-level offices of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), police records, and different public and private hospitals.
The statement said Jatri Kalyan Samity is not a registered organisation and had presented "confusing information" on several occasions.
With "ill motive", it has been trying to create confusion among people by exaggerating number of road accidents, the statementread.
The ministry urged people to not be confused with accident-related reports of Jatri Kalyan Samity.
Jatri Kalyan Samity, meanwhile, said it has prepared the statistics on the basis of reports published in national and regional newspapers and online news portals.
"We have collected information from prominent and credible media outlets and checked and re-checked it. Our report is correct," Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organisation, told The Daily Star yesterday when he was asked about the ministry's press statement.
Asked whether their organisation is registered, he said Jatri Kalyan Samity obtained registration from Department of
Social Welfare in 2013 and their registration is still valid.
"Following publication of reports on several occasions, there has been pressure to cancel our registration," he said, adding, "By denying our report [on accidents], the government is enabling the situation that causes road accidents."
"The ministry should implement our recommendations | to stop road accidents], instead of going after us," he said.
The press statement said the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, along with stakeholders, is going to focus on activities to implement Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's directives to prevent accidents and casualties.
The ministry is working to reduce the number of road accidents by half within 2021 to fulfill SDG target.
Public awareness to follow traffic rules has to be generated, and apart from government initiatives, more nongovernment efforts are required, it said.