The parliamentary standing committee on the communications ministry on Thursday asked the ministry to take measures to prevent undue intervention of the shipping minister, Shajahan Khan, into communications ministry affairs.
The committee at a meeting also decided not to invite further the shipping minister to its meeting in the future in the capacity of a minister, sources attending the meeting said.
A BNP member on the committee demanded resignation of the communications minister for irregularities in the communications sector and of the shipping minister for his unauthorised intervention in the issuance of driving licences, the sources said.
The sources added that the committee had discussed the present situation of the communications sector and observed that some issues such as the condition of roads and highways, pressure exerted by the shipping minister on the issuance of driving licences and traffic accidents.
'We recommended that the communications ministry should take measures so that the shipping minister could not intervene into the affairs under the jurisdiction of our ministry by any means,' committee member Golam Mawla Rony told New Age, adding that the committee decided not to invite the shipping minister to its meeting in the future.
The committee members also said that Shajahan could attend the committee as a labour leader leaving the portfolio of a minister if he was interested.
The meeting observed that the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority had issued about 1.75 lakh driving licences without test and asked the authorities to clarify the reason for it. It also asked the authorities whey they were not taking measures to cancel the licences.
The committee also decided to issue a show-cause notice to former chief engineer of the Roads and Highways for the run-down road conditions that persisted for two months, the sources said.
It also appointed a sub-committee set up earlier to investigate the alleged corruption and irregularities in the Roads and Highways Department.
Headed by Golam Mawla Rony, the three-member subcommittee was asked to submits a detailed report on the present condition of the roads and to figure out the reasons for such condition, the sources said.
'It is unlikely that there was no corruption in the communications sector. We assigned one of the sub-committees to investigate the matter,' the committee chair, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, told reporters after the meeting.
He also said that the committee had recommended stern action against the issuance of forged licences.
BNP lawmaker Nazrul Islam Manju at the beginning of the meeting urged the chairman to include into agenda the road situation, accidents and contradiction between the finance and communications ministers by cancelling agenda that was scheduled and demanded resignation of the shipping and the communications minister.
'I have demanded that the communications minister should resign for his failure to repair the roads and that the shipping minister should resign for his unauthorised intervention in the issuance of licences for drivers,' Manju told New Age after the meeting.
Committee member Omar Faruk Chowdhury told New Age that they had raised the issue of road situation repeatedly but the ministry did not listed to their calls.
'If the minister could have taken necessary measures based on our recommendations, he could have avoided the blame now,' he said.
The committee also expressed its disappointment at the increased number of snatching incidents on highways and recommended that the Highway Police should be brought under the communications ministry.
Source : New Age
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