Second best joke!
DS of 27 Jan 09 featured your commentary : “Best Joke of the Year” on the front page. After a long interval, it was a welcome resumption to the usual home truths by you. I wonder, however, if anyone noticed the 2nd Best Joke of the Year, that appeared on the 2nd page with a picture on it on the last page in the same issue.
This was the appearance of the Dept of the Environment on Dhaka's road and the news that 27 cars were hauled up, Tk 19,000 extracted as fines and 13 hydraulic horns seized (from about 4 lac vehicles). Duty done, perhaps for the next decade, they will now resume their idyllic inertia leaving the population to become deaf gradually.
Noise pollution is one of the most potent causes of degeneration of public health as acknowledged by most experts and it needs to be controlled as soon as possible. What prevents the DoE from taking the following actions after setting the limit of noise permissible in decibels (say 40 dcb or the equivalent of a rickshaw bell whichever is less)?
1) Ban import of horns above the permissible limit.
2) Check the dcb of the horn in each vehicle at the port at the import stage.
3) Check the dcb of the horn in each vehicle before renewing road permits.
4) Fine the culprits a minimum of Tk. 1,000 for each 5 dcb or part above the limit, if caught on the roads during regular checks.
5) Check complaints from the public (with vehicle number) in this respect. Seize the horn after fining the owner as in 4.
6) Threaten vehicle owners with cancellation of road permits if caught for this offence twice.
If the DoE does not have the gumption or guts to do this, they can easily lease out and franchise some private operators to do their work for them, thereby generating employment for quite a few educated youth. The same principle can also be adopted for preventing air pollution by harmful emissions from vehicles and can be done simultaneously. All that would be required would be some decibel and air emission instruments to be given on hire to the franchise holders. Of course honesty, dedication, hard work and non-interference from vested interests would also be required and one wonders where we are going to get them!!!
If we ever get this on song, we can easily tackle the problem of traffic jams and tailbacks on the basis of existing traffic laws with just a little fine tuning. Are there any takers?
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