DSCC, DNCC Vehicles: Proxy drivers, lack of registration common for both

Almost 60 percent garbage collecting vehicles of Dhaka South City Corporation are driven by contractual or proxy drivers, said a DSCC source.

Besides, most of the DSCC vehicles are not registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). Similar situation also prevails in Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), the source added.

The sorry picture of the two city corporations came to the fore following the tragic death of Nayeem Hasan, a 17-year-old student of Notre Dame College, on Wednesday. A DSCC garbage truck hit him in the city's Gulistan area.

After arresting Russel Khan, who was driving the vehicle at that time, police said he was not a designated DSCC driver.

According to a DSCC press release, Iran Miah, the designated driver for the truck, gave the keys to Md Harun, who then gave them to Russel. Both Harun and Russel are cleaners of the city corporation.

Russel took the vehicle out from the capital's Sayedabad area, Deputy Commissioner of Motijheel Division police Abdul Ahad said yesterday.

Another man, Ahsan Kabir Khan, a graphic designer of Dainik Sangbad, was killed when a DNCC garbage truck rear-ended a motorbike and then ran over his head across the street from Bashundhara City around 2:30pm yesterday. Ahsan was the pillion rider.

This accident happened a time when students were protesting, demanding road safety.

Police were yet to arrest the truck's driver.

However, a DNCC source told The Daily Star that the vehicle's registered driver is one Rashed, but cleaner Fatik was at the wheel when the accident happened.

The DSCC has only 76 drivers against 183 garbage trucks. It also appoints contractual drivers on "no work, no pay" basis, the source said.

But they often hire somebody else to do the job.

"They are not skilled enough to drive heavy or even light vehicles," the source added.

The DSCC has 609 vehicles and most of them are not registered with BRTA, said sources.

To address the shortage of drivers, the DSCC wrote to the local government authority last year to appoint 107 drivers for the garbage trucks, but the authority approved appointment of only 50.

The DSCC published an advertisement for the appointment of 50 drivers on January 29.

"But we could only appoint 19 drivers so far," said an official, adding that they did not get enough application for the jobs.

DSCC Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh yesterday said the designated driver was not driving the vehicle rather another one was at the wheel.

He said they have already suspended the designated driver and would remove him from the job.

"We will take stern action so that no outsiders can drive DSCC vehicles," the mayor said.

The DNCC has 333 vehicles. Of them, 147 are garbage trucks.

"We have 34 drivers on the payroll. And the rest of the vehicles are driven by cleaners who have driving licences," Mizanur Rahman, general manager of DNCC's transport department, told this newspaper yesterday.

Contacted, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said, "We have a shortage of drivers."

He added that all their vehicles are not registered with the BRTA.

The mayor also vowed to take action against the driver in question.