Take action against buildings that shrunk parking spaces

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to take legal action against multi-storeyed buildings and shopping malls that have shrunk their parking spaces by violating their approved designs.

The directives came from a high-profile meeting on road safety held at the PMO on Sunday with Nojibur Rahman, prime minister's principal secretary, in the chair.

The meeting was informed that all authorities concerned have submitted their work plans on ensuring road safety and discipline on the highways to the PMO and necessary arrangements will be made very soon in the light of the work plans.

The meeting was also apprised that Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has already started to strictly enforce laws against violators of traffic rules while Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has begun implementing their work plan.

The meeting has also decided to engage scouts and girl guides to create awareness of traffic rules among students and their guardians.

It was decided at the meeting that a leaflet containing important traffic signs, the reasons for road accidents and the responsibility of all including pedestrians, drivers, riders of motorbikes, passengers and transport owners will be distributed among students of all educational institutions with the help of scouts and girl guides.

The scouts and girl guides will also collect signatures of guardians acknowledging the directives on the leaflets and submit those to their respective educational institutions.

Besides, the meeting issued directives on reading out the leaflet before Jumma prayers at all mosques in the country, publishing the content of the leaflet in the teachers' portal and making students aware of traffic rules during their daily assembly.

Moreover, directives have also been given to local administrations for arranging health tests for drivers and traffic awareness discussions at “mothers' gatherings”.

Officials of the PMO, education ministry, DMP and Bangladesh Scouts were present at the meeting, while several officials from eight divisions and officials of the Scouts and Girl Guides Association were connected via videoconference.