A round table discussion on ‘rickshaw movement in Dhaka city’ was organized by Bangladesh communist party Dhaka unit yesterday.
There politicians, academics and professionals urged the government to withdraw ban on rickshaw in different roads of the capital.
Party president Manzurul Ahsan Khan said, government should realize that the capital is not only for the rich. He insisted on mass transportation systems.
Mahbub Hasan who read the keynote paper demanded restriction of private car imports, increasing traffic police personnel and end to harassment of poor rickshaw pullers; he also demanded introduction of mass transportation system in the city.
Women, children and elderly people and patients are facing serious difficulty in traveling without rickshaws; the poor rickshaw pullers are loosing their livelihood. Rickshaw is a pollution free transport and it’s like taxi of middle class and lower middle class. Lifting rickshaws from different roads without introduction of proper alternatives are ridiculous said from the round table.
The communist party and many intellectuals have been consistent on criticizing the rickshaw ban.
