Make the trustee board functional: Jatri Kalyan

Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity yesterday demanded that the government make the trustee board functional immediately which will deal with compensation related issues after accidents.

The passenger welfare body also demanded to set Tk 20 lakh as compensation for families of the deceased victims of road accidents and Tk 5 lakh for injured.

Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organisation, placed the demands at a press conference at Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh.

More than two years after the Road Transport Act-2018 was passed in parliament, the government in December last year has appointed a chairman and a secretary for the trustee board that is supposed to deal with compensation-related issues after accidents.

Yet, the board cannot function as it is supposed to since the rules for it have not yet been formulated.

Road accidents victims will have to wait until the rules are formulated and approved by the government before they can get compensation. They can seek compensation but these will not be processed before the board is fully functional.

Under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance-1983, victims or their family members had the opportunity to seek compensation at the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal for death, injuries, and damage to properties.

But the ordinance was repealed after the act came into force in November 2019, narrowing victims' scope for getting compensation. In some cases, victims can now file writ petitions with the High Court to get compensation.

In this situation, the ministry on December 22 last year issued a circular, giving BRTA's chairman and its secretary additional duty of the chairman and secretary of the trustee board with immediate effect.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, following the road ministry's directives, prepared the draft rules of the act and sent them to the ministry in September last year. The ministry is expected to send the draft to the law ministry soon, sources said.

As per the draft, if a person is killed in a road accident, his or her family members will get Tk 5 lakh while an injured person will get Tk 3 lakh.