Secretary's car caught again on wrong side of road

The driver of the Rural Development and Co-Operatives Division secretary was sued for the second straight day yesterday for using the wrong side of the road.

Secretary Mafruha Sultana was in the car when it was caught near Bangla Motor in a drive in the afternoon, police said.

The driver, Babul Mollah, was fined and sued for committing the same offence on Hare Road the previous day. The secretary was in the vehicle that day as well.

During the two-hour drive from 5:00pm yesterday, law enforcers also fined and sued the driver of a special superintendent of police of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and six bikers. Another motorcycle was impounded.

A traffic police team led by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner (traffic) Mosleh Uddin Ahmed and Deputy Commissioner Rifat Shameem conducted the drive to check traffic rules violation, said officials who joined it.

Mosleh Uddin told The Daily Star that they would continue such drives.

On Sunday, setting a rare instance, police filed cases against the drivers of 57 vehicles, mostly carrying VVIPs, and fined them for using the wrong side of Hare Road.

A state minister, a lawmaker and several top bureaucrats were inside the vehicles.

“About 70 percent of the vehicles were carrying bureaucrats, 10 percent police and the rest were carrying media personnel, an army officer and others,” said a traffic police officer who participated in the drive.

Using the wrong side of the road defying traffic laws during rush hour is a common practice of ministers, government officials, VIPs, lawmakers, ruling party leaders and media personnel.

Police were hardly ever seen taking any action against them.