Staff Reporter:
Mentioning the ‘No helmet, no fuel’ policy, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yes-terday said that motorcyclists and their pillion passengers without wearing helmets will be denied fuel in the country.
Asking the authorities concerned to make wearing helmets for motorcyclists and their pillions mandatory across the country, he said: “From yesterday, motorcyclists not wearing helmets will be denied fuel,” he said.
Quader, also Awami League (AL) general secretary, gave this decision while holding the first meeting of the advisory council of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) at its headquarters here.
“We have to abide by this policy (No helmet, no fuel) throughout the country. All deputy commissioners and superintendents of police have to be made aware of this,” he added.
In the meeting, he also directed to take steps to stop plying of battery-run rickshaws and easy-bikes on roads in Dhaka city.
Referring to the terrible bus accident in Jhalakathi, he said: “How can a 40-year-old car ply on the road?”
Mentioning the vehicles of Dhaka city as unfit, he said vehicles at villages are better than Dhaka.
“I want to know what BRTA was doing all this time,” he added.
In the meeting, AL Presidium Member and Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation (BRTWF) President Shajahan Khan recommended total destruction of expired and unfit vehicles instead of dump-ing them.
Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Nur Taposh, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, Secretary of Road Transport and Highways Division A B M Amin Ullah Nuri and BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Majumdar took part in the meeting, among others.
