Timely financial aid demanded for road accident victims
Jatri Kalyan Samity has demanded that the victims of road accidents be provided with financial assistance on time through incorporation of such provision into the Road Transport Act 2018 on an urgent basis.
"Even though the ruling government is at the end of its term, no significant steps have been seen to fulfil its promise of ensuring safe roads as per the election manifesto," said Secretary General of the Jatri Kalyan Samity Mozammel Haque Chowdhury in a statement on Friday.
On the occasion of National Road Safety Day, Jatri Kalyan Samity organised a press conference on "Compensation for road accident victims and activation of National Road Safety Council as per the Road Transport Act".
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Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said the people who earn a living mostly die in road accidents, causing socio-economic losses to victims and their dependents.
Buet's Accident Research Institute (ARI) data says the losses in road accidents in the last three years amounted to about Tk1.09 lakh crore.
Analysing the police database, ARI says 54% of the people killed in road and highway accidents in the country in the last decade are between 16 and 40 years of age. And 18.5% of those killed in accidents are children below 15 years.
He also said due to the loss of life of a breadwinner in a road accident, according to the Roads and Highways department, there is a financial loss of Tk24.62 lakh. Accordingly, the family of each dead is entitled to compensation of this amount from the state.
Although the Road Transport Act 2018 provides for compensation of Tk5 lakh to the families of the deceased and Tk3 lakh to the injured from the financial assistance fund for road accident victims, the process of providing this compensation has not started even after 3 years of the law coming into effect, the secretary general claimed.
Buet ARI Assistant Professor Kazi Saifun Newaz, prominent journalist Abu Saeed Khan, JKS Vice President Tawhidul Haque, Joint Secretary General M Monirul Haque, National Human Rights Society Bangladesh President Manjur Hossain Isha, Safe Drive General Secretary Kazi Abdul Qayyum and others also spoke on the occasion.
The family members of road accident victims at the programme expressed their grief and demanded financial assistance from the state as per the law.
