The newly-enacted Road `Transport Act 2018’ is scheduled to be enforced from today, though neither police nor Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has yet updated their logistic capacity. Even the transport owners and employees are also not serious about the implementation of the new act. Police sources said they were planning to arrange an awareness programme soon.
According to sources, mobile courts would be deployed for the enforcement of the new Road Transport Act-2018.
Officials at the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry said, police would lodge cases against the law violators followed by time-consuming trial process.
The much talked-about law came into effect across the country on November 1 more than 13 months after it had been passed in the Jatiya Sangsad.
Road transport minister Obaidul Quader twice deferred enforcement of the law for making people aware about the law on November 2 and 7 and he extended the awareness programme by one more week.
He also said, the rules for the law were supposed to be framed within November 14, but the rules are yet to be framed. Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary, Md Nazrul Islam said that the laws would be enforced fully from Sunday (today).
He said, police have already started enforcement of the laws from November 1. As the ministry had yet not told them to enforce the laws, they were only lodging cases under the laws at a ‘tolerable’ level.
About enlistment of the new laws into the schedule of the Mobile Court Act, 2009, Nazrul Islam said, the law ministry had recently refused their proposal to include the transport law’s section 84 and 98 into the schedule of mobile court law, as these sections were out the purview of Mobile Court Act.
Road transport law’s section 84 is about modification of vehicles defying law and punishment for this is maximum three years’ or minimum one year’s imprisonment or maximum Tk three lakh in fines or both. The section 98 is about damaging life and property by overloading while punishment for these are maximum three years’ imprisonment or maximum Tk three lakh in fines or both. Currently under the mobile court law, the executive magistrates can award punishment for the highest of two years’ imprisonment.
‘From Sunday, the laws would be enforced fully excluding these two sections for the time being,’ he said, and added that a gazette was scheduled to be published in this regard within the day. He said, as a result, only police could now lodge cases under these two sections which would be followed by a time-consuming process of investigation and trial.
