'You shall not pass!'

Despite outcry on mainstream media and social media alike, cars going through the "wrong side" of the road to cut through traffic have been a perennial problem of Dhaka. In many cases, these cars belong to "influential people" who have little respect for law.

But one traffic police has been standing in their way, irrespective of who the owner of the car is, in the capital's Hare Road and adjacent streets.

Ramna Zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Traffic (South) launched a drive against traffic rule violations in Ramna and adjacent areas last Wednesday, a traffic policeman told The Daily Star.

“The drive began on Wednesday last week and has been going on for six days [excluding weekend],” said Tariqul Alam Sumon, Traffic Inspector (Admin), who has been performing his duty in the area with commendable integrity. “Some 12 cars were fined today, while eight cars were towed,” he said yesterday. Many of the cars going through the wrong side belong to lawmakers, ministers, secretaries and bureaucrats, he added.

Earlier in a Facebook post on Tuesday night, Tariqul said: “In these drives, eighty out of a hundred cars belong to secretaries/ministers/police and high government officials, five of them lower-level police officers/employees, five journalists/ambulances and the rest 10 are motorbikes/general people's cars and CNGs.

"Our sergeants overlook everyone and file cases against these 10 in their drives. But this hurts my conscience. My ideology is if we can file cases against one or two VIPs instead of the general people, and if it is publicised, the general people will not do such things.”