Rhd road safety division: Dropped when needed most?
At a time when there's a heightened public concern over traffic deaths and safety, the Road Safety Division of the RHD may soon cease to exist.
And it may happen despite a proposal from the RHD to rather expand and strengthen it, considering how reckless driving and violations of traffic rules are claiming lives every day throughout the country.
The division was formed under the Roads and Highways Department to deal with issues related to road safety. Currently, an executive engineer is at its helm.
In a proposal sent to the public administration ministry in early 2020, the RHD suggested that the division be expanded into a circle under a new wing. It also proposed several changes in the existing organogram with additional manpower.
In October last year, the ministry partially approved some of the changes but did not give its nod to the new wing.
This means that once the new organogram comes into force, the road safety division will cease to exist and the RHD would not have any dedicated manpower to take road safety measures like conducting audits, investigating accidents or taking corrective steps.
The development came just a month before the country once again witnessed road safety movements after the death of two college students in the span of a week in November.
However, the revised organogram has to go through a long procedure and needs approval from different bodies, including the finance ministry, before coming into effect.
"But these bodies usually do not add manpower, they rather cut it down," officials said.
ROAD SAFETY DIVISION
The division is one of the two currently working under the road design and safety circle of the RHD's technical services wing.
An additional chief engineer is the chief of a wing, while an executive engineer leads a division and a superintendent engineer leads a circle.
Formed in 1992, the road safety division was created to conduct road safety audits on national, regional and major feeder roads, and bridge projects; prepare annual accident reports and recommend road safety countermeasure designs of identified road accident hazards.
Currently, the division has some 10 people, including five officials.
The RHD has long been demanding changes within the existing organogram and an increase in manpower to deal with the workload and changes in work patterns.
Of the existing 9,431 posts of the RHD, 4,536 remained vacant, document shows.
However, there are several thousand temporary workers, mostly fourth-class employees, working in the department's lower tiers.
Following RHD's proposal, the Road Transport and Highway Division had suggested the creation of around 14,000 new posts and abolish 1,850 old ones such as that of stenographers, who are no longer required.
But, the public administration minister in October approved only 2,608 posts, including 383 for cadres, and abolished 1,850 posts, RHD sources said.
DROPPING THE DIVISION
As road accidents have become a major concern over the last few years and their workload has also increased, RHD authorities wanted to expand the road safety division into a circle.
It wanted to create a new wing -- Road Network Operation and Safety Wing – and take out the road safety division from the Technical Service Wing.
Under the new wing, road safety issues would be dealt with by a circle comprising three divisions instead of one.
"But the public administration ministry dropped the entire wing, and thus, once the new organogram comes into force, there would be no road safety division at all," an RHD official said.
Contacted, RHD Chief Engineer Abdus Sabur, said they would raise the matter before the authorities concerned because the government is giving emphasis on road safety.
"Through the [road transport and bridges] ministry, we will send a proposal to the Public Administration Ministry again to include [the safety division in the new organogram]," he told The Daily Star on January 9.
The Daily Star could not reach KM Ali Azam, senior secretary of the public administration ministry, over phone for comments.
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