Participants in a human chain in the Barisal city Saturday called on the communication and shipping ministers to resign over their failure to discharge their responsibilities.
Speakers at the programme, demanding people's safety on the roads and waterways in the country, also called for trial of those responsible for the road and waterway accidents.
Barisal Sangskritik San-gathan Samanway Parishad, an alliance of 28 local cultural organisations, organised the human chain in front of the Ashwini Kumar Hall.
The speakers at the programme brought a number of demands to curb accidents, including end to rotation system on Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal launch routes, transparency in the road maintenance work, marking the accident-prone spots both in the waterways and on roads and punishment for those driving without valid driving licences and vehicles without fitness.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the rotation system on the Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal route, they blamed the launch owners for their outright violation of the government directions for plying launches on this route.
They said while the government directed that a total of 13 launches would ply the route every day, the launch owners association, saying they did not receive adequate passengers for so many launches, plied only tow to four launches a day.
This not only caused terrible sufferings to the passengers but endangered their lives too as the launches often carried passengers far beyond their capacities.
They also called on the government to compel the launch owners to abide by the decision of the Barisal Sub-judge Court which had declared their act illegal early 2005.
The human chain, presided over by Samanway Parishad president Nazrul Islam Chunnu, was joined by journalists, advocates, social workers, cultural and political leaders, among others.
Barisal Press Club president Manabendra Batabyal, Barisal Reporter's Unity president Sushanta Ghosh, Group Theatre Federation divisional president Syed Dulal, college teachers association divisional secretary Mohsinul Islam Habul, school teachers association district president Dasgupta Ashish Kumar, Nagarik Samaj member-secretary Mizanur Rahman, Commu-nist Party of Bangladesh leader AK Azad, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal leader Abdul Hye Mahbub and sector commanders forum representative Kazal Gohsh also attended the programme.
Source : New Age
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