Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday urged the authorities concerned to remain alert so that goods-laden transport cannot carry passengers during lockdown.
\nHe came up with the call while speaking at a view-exchange meeting on the ongoing activities of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) through videoconferencing from his official residence here.
\nQuader, also the Awami League General Secretary, said after announcement of a complete lockdown beginning from April 14 next, an over flowing crowd of homebound people are seen at launch and ferry ghats, while they are following the health guidelines and social distancing.
\n\u201cSuch attitudes of people can accelerate the coronavirus infection. That\u2019s why I urge all concerned, including the administration, to play a responsible role in this end,\u201d he said.
\nQuader said many transport owners and workers are not following the government\u2019s instructions and health guidelines while running their vehicles amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
\nHe stressed the need for strengthening monitoring so that health guidelines, including mandatory use of masks, could be ensured in public transport.
\n\u201cIf necessary, the number of mobile courts should increase. The cooperation of Deputy Commissioners can be sought in conducting mobile courts at district level,\u201d Quader said.
\nAbout issuance of driving licenses, the road transport minister said driving licenses have long been issued on a limited scale.
\n\u201cAlthough enrollment of licenses and issuance of biometrics has started, it does not gain momentum yet,\u201d he said, asking the secretary of the ministry concerned and the BRTA chairman to take steps to issue license cards as soon as possible.
\nAbout the country\u2019s politics, he said there is a lot of discussions and criticism about the country\u2019s democratic politics and the role of the opposition. \u201cIt is largely true that our democracy is not institutionalised yet due to various setbacks and obstacles,\u201d he added.
\nThe AL general secretary said alongside the ruling party, a non-communal strong opposition is an urgent to institutionalise democracy in the country.
\nMentioning that a responsible opposition party can play a vital role in strengthening democracy here, Quader said in the absence of a strong opposition, communal politics finds a fertile ground for getting stronger and a section of the ruling party get chance to be authoritarian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday urged the authorities concerned to remain alert so that goods-laden transport cannot carry passengers during lockdown. He came up with the call while speaking at a view-exchange meeting on the ongoing activities of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) through videoconferencing from his official residence here. Quader, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialherald.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}