The rule issued by the High Court on Wednesday asking the authorities concerned to explain in two weeks why they should not be directed to stop plying of vehicles on the wrong side of roads in Dhaka city is indeed a timely one. Obviously driving on the wrong side of roads is a punishable offence. However, the authorities who are supposed to ensure that no vehicle gets away with this offence are apparently unable or unwilling to address the issue.
In fact, many of the vehicles which ply on the wrong side belong to various law enforcement agencies. This would have been understandable if these vehicles were chasing criminals or in other ways in an operational mode. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
Having said that it would be unfair to put blame on those vehicles only that belong to law enforcement agencies. We frequently see private as well as government vehicles, cars with press signs, and motorcycles are plying on the wrong side of a road as if the wrong side is the right side for them.
To be more specific, flag-bearing huge sport utility vehicles of ministers, cars of lawmakers and top government officials, police, leaders of the ruling party and its front organisations, journalists and student buses of public universities are the main violators. It is often observed that instead of making way for the people who are on the right side of the road and wait quite a while in a jam, traffic police are found busy trying to get the VIPs on the wrong side of the road on their way. Only in cases of emergencies fire brigade vehicles, police cars and ambulances can and do use the wrong side. However for others it is simply unacceptable.
  Last year Dhaka Metropolitan Police installed retractable spike strips on Hare Road on a trial basis to see if such devices work in preventing vehicles from taking the wrong side. But the device was removed after only two weeks allegedly under pressure from influential quarters.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police must enforce the laws to stop the drivers of errant vehicles–to whoever they may belong to–using the wrong side of the road to avoid traffic jams. A “Mobile Court” system, where the members of the legal system, judges and lawyers, could move quickly to the site of an offense and deliver a verdict in a short amount of time in the long run could change the attitudes of drivers, vehicle owners and the society
in general.