Major parties bring Dhaka to a standstill
Show of strength surrounding selling of nomination forms
Saugato Bosu, Dhaka
Dhaka has almost come to a standstill in the last one week thanks to the show of strength by the two main political parties. The occasion was selling of nomination forms by both parties for the general election, slated to be held on December 30.
The areas worst affected were Dhanmondi and Naya Paltan, where offices of the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are located.
Since these two areas are almost in central Dhaka, a gridlock there affected the whole traffic of the capital, forcing people to spend long agonising hours on the road to reach destinations.
At one point yesterday, a clash erupted between leaders and activists of the BNP and the police when the latter tried to clear a packed road in front of the BNP office in Naya Paltan.
On Sunday, traffic in the whole city was stagnated for hours when the AL started selling nomination forms from the Dhanmondi office.
Two persons died when two factions of the ruling party clashed.
The traffic chaos started on Friday when the ruling party began selling nomination forms. It has been going on for four days.
On Monday, the main opposition BNP started selling nomination forms. The aspirants parked their cars on Inner Circular Road, creating tailbacks in the area. The situation improved when the police blocked a lane and diverted the vehicles to the other.
Earlier, the day started with a huge tailback from Hemayetpur in Savar to the Shyamoli intersection on Mirpur Road. The police struggled to control the situation.
Commuters said selling of nomination forms and the show of strength by aspirants and their supporters were the main cause of traffic woes.
People going from Gabtoli for Motijheel or Shahbag had to spend over an hour to get to Farmgate. Commuters said most political activities took place in the central part of the capital and blamed the system for encouraging chaos. The scenario was the same from Framgate to Karwanbazar. Even bike-riders found it difficult to move.
Jakaria Ahmed, a private company job holder, told The Independent about his experience of the last five days on the road after starting from Mirpur for his workplace in Panthapath. I was stuck at Shyamoli to Asadgate everyday for over an hour. Traffic on the entire stretch was stuck in the gridlock.
This correspondent found tailbacks in Mirpur-1, Gabtoli, Kalyanpur and Shyamoli, Karwanbazar areas from 9am to 2pm. In some places, the gridlocks stayed largely unchanged until the afternoon. People in Uttara, Banani and some other areas had to deal with a shortage of public transport as well.
Afsana Khanam, a regular commuter, was seen waiting at the technical stop for a bus to Karwanbazar. She told this correspondent: This has been happening since Friday.
Some transport workers said hiring of buses for the political show of strength was largely responsible for the shortage of transport.
Some traffic policemen told this correspondent that they were trying their best to manage the situation after pressure of traffic increased in the two main areas of the city.
But it was clearly seen that traffic policemen were a little lenient with people taking part in the political show of strength.
Mofiz Ahmed, joint commissioner of police (trafficsouth) told The Independent: Were trying our best. The Traffic Division is keeping a watch on the situation every day. Public awareness is important for controlling such a situation. Problem occurs when pressure is concentrated at one place. We are managing this with diversions. We have deployed more traffic policemen on the roads since Friday. He, however, admitted that it is not easy to control such gatherings. It may be mentioned that the Election Commission (EC) introduced online submission of nomination this time, but political parties have not taken any visible step to utilise it.
The EC further mentioned that political show of strength must be stopped as it violates the electoral code.
