Mobile courts fine 331 jaywalkers
Three hundred and 31 pedestrians were fined by mobile courts on charge of violating traffic rules in crossing busy roads in the city avoiding footbridges and underpasses as campaign for creating road safety awareness began on Tuesday. On the first day of the drives, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police deployed two mobile courts with executive magistrates of Dhaka district administration on Kazi Nazrul Islam VIP Avenue under public nuisance offences of the Penal Code 1860. The DMP will operate mobile courts for seven days on a pilot basis until December 1 on the road stretch between Ruposhi Bangla hotel and Farmgate police box point. On Tuesday, the two mobile courts conducted the drive at three points at Banglamotor crossing, SAARC Fountain crossing and at Farmgate intersection as there were four footbridges at Paribagh, Banglamotor, Daily Star and Farmgate police box points and one underpass at Karwanbazar.
Executive magistrate Abdul Kuddus, who conducted drive at Banglamotor crossing, said a total of 331 people were fined amounts ranging from Tk 20 to Tk 200. ‘The total amount of fine the two mobile courts realised stood at Tk 24,095. ‘None was jailed on the first day of the drive against jaywalking,’ he told New Age. He said they would conduct drives on the same spot today and tomorrow. Though a three-day awareness-building campaign preceded the launch of the mobile courts, many of the pedestrians who paid fines for taking a short cut to cross road said they knew nothing about the drive. People generally welcomed the drives, but some of them alleged that some high and mighty were allowed to get off scot-free after violating traffic rules while petty offenders got punished. A pedestrian, Selina Akhtar, who was fined Tk 100 for violating rule while crossing SAARC Fountain intersection, said, ‘I welcome the initiatives, but the problem is that such drives do not continue.’ Many of them alleged that on-duty police had caught them at the moment they attempted to cross the road without warning them.
DMP commissioner Benazir Ahmed while visiting the mobile courts said that he hoped that the drives would create road safety awareness among the citizens. ‘The initiative has been taken to create road safety awareness among pedestrians and motivate them to use underpasses and footbridges,’ said the DMP commissioner. He said civilized countries did not require conducting drives to enforce the law. He said about 950 people were killed in 1,102 road accidents in Dhaka in the last five years. A study conducted by the accident research institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology has found that about 58 per cent of road accidents in the capital involved pedestrians.
- See more at: http://newagebd.net/70504/mobile-courts-fine-331-jaywalkers/#sthash.IwryEiU6.dpuf
