Report on Road Transport Bill placed before JS

Parliament Correspondent: A parliamentary committee placed its report before the parliament on the much-talked about proposed Road Transport Act, 2018, without any major changes in the bill.

Ekabbor Hossain, chief of the parliamentary body, placed the report before the Jatiya Sangsad on Monday.

Earlier on September 13, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader placed the proposed law in the parliament, which then sent it to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Road, Transport and Bridges for scrutiny. The JS body was asked to submit its report within a week.

The parliamentary committee on September 15 sat in a meeting and finalised the report for placing it before parliament.

The parliamentary committee did not address criticisms against the proposed legislature, including the “lenient” nature of punishment over deaths caused by reckless driving.

In the report, the committee recommended to include a government-nominated noted person in the Trustee Board to manage the fund for the injured or family members of those killed in road accidents under Section 54.

In March last year, the cabinet approved in principle the proposed legislation but it remained shelved at the law ministry for more than a year for vetting amid opposition by transport owners and workers to some of the provisions.

Later, the government decided to place the draft act before the cabinet following the student agitation for road safety which came on the heels of the death of two college students in Dhaka on July 29.

Campaigners have long been demanding that the government increase the punishment to at least 10 years for reckless driving resulting in death.  As per the existing law, three years’ jail is the maximum punishment for this offence.

The draft law retains the punishment of five years’ imprisonment for causing death of a person by reckless driving, a sentence which road safety campaigners believe is insufficient.


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 17, 2018/Asad/AI