How do I return home?
I am 75 and still work 8-10 hours every day. I commute by rickshaw from my rented flat in Niketon to office in Banani via Mohakhali Road. I do not have a car or even a mobile. For the last few months rickshaws have been banned from Mohakhali Road, so twice every day I am summarily ejected from my rickshaw by the dozens of cops on duty (have they nothing better to do?) and forced to walk the 1 km portion of Mohakhali Road like thousands of men, women, children, old, infirm, disabled, sick, students, small traders etc. etc. I manage somehow during the day but returning home after dark poses a problem. I have also undergone bye-pass operation. At that rush hour it is impossible to get a CNG or taxi. Even if I can, they refuse the short distance fare and laugh in the face of the policemen who interceded on my behalf once or twice.
After dusk, Mohakhali Road without lights and with uneven, occupied and incomplete footpaths, is practically impassable due to my failing eyesight and wobbly legs further blinded by the glare of cars racing down the pot-holed road. Already I have collected multiple scratches from tripping and falling twice. It is only a matter of time before I break a few bones and do irreparable damage to my by-pass incision.
Allow me therefore, to come back to the above and a few more questions.
1. How do I and thousands like me, get home cheaply, comfortably and swiftly to/from our workplaces?
2. Is it not better to let the poor rickshaw-puller earn an honest living and maintain his family than to put him out of work by restricting his movements? Is that not his constitutional right?
3. What do you think he will be doing if not pulling his rickshaw? Take to mugging, dacoity, theft etc thereby compounding law & order problems?
4. The fares earned by rickshaws remain in the country, add to GDP and generate mass employment. Letting free access to a few privileged car owners augments the coffers of multi-national oil, vehicles and other companies from our valuable foreign exchange. Are you not aware that oil is already $100 per barrel and rising? Is this sound economically?
5. Cannot motor vehicles and rickshaws co-exist and run smoothly till sufficient CNGs and taxis are put on the road and rickshaws gradually phased out? If you think that is impossible, then you have never been to Dhaka Cantonment and seen what uniformed discipline can do?
Lastly, let me 'congratulate' you for 'efficiently solving' Dhaka's traffic problem by banning rickshaws. Is that a fact or am I imagining seeing gridlock all over the city with nary a rickshaw in sight?
Will inconveniencing hundreds of thousands while favouring a few bring you popularity?
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