Staff Correspondent:

Shipping and Communication Reporters Forum (SCRF) and the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCPSRR) on Wednesday urged the government to ban movement of sand-carrying vessels (Bulkheads) from March 25 to April 7 to prevent accidents on waterways during the Eid-ul-Fitr journey.

The two organisations also demanded mobile court drives against all types of illegal vessels.

In a joint statement, signed by NCPSRR president Mohammed Shahid Mia and SCRF general secretary Lion Mohd Jahangir Alam called for immediate action to conduct mobile court drives across the country.

They urged the Ministry of Shipping, Department of Shipping (DoS), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), River Police and Coast Guard to pay heed to their demand.

The leaders of the organisations called for the involvement of district administration and the district police for preventing waterway accidents.

In addition to punishing masters and drivers (sailors) without documents, the statement also demanded that vessel owners be held accountable for employing sailors without proper documents

The statement expressed deep concern over frequent waterway accidents and the sinking of cargo boats in different parts of the country after being hit by bulkheads.

Despite the restriction on the movement of bulkheads from sunset to sunrise, the statement highlighted that hundreds of bulkheads are operating at night in absence of monitoring by the administration.

The SCRF and the NCPSRR said that while the number of registered vessels is 15,000, there are at least 85,000 types of vessels across the country according to Director General of Department of Shipping.

Among these, approximately 70,000 vessels are operating illegally, with bulkheads making up at least 6,000 of them, they said.

According to the statement, out of 15,000 registered boats, regular annual survey (fitness test) is done only for 8,000.

As per the knowledge of the concerned officials of the DoS and BIWTA, the remaining 7,000 unfit boats are plying freely.

But the authorities concerned don’t take action against those for unknown reasons, the statement said.