Nothing can be more distressing than the indifference that the various service agencies demonstrate to public inconveniences caused by their indiscriminate cutting of roads in Dhaka city. The city corporations, unfortunately, have not been able to deter these agencies from doing this mischief round-the-year though the issue has been under constant media focus. An FE report, published recently, quoting experts, blamed the absence of a legal framework for checking uncontrolled cutting of city roads by service agencies. There is a 'Road Cutting Manual', formulated in 2003. Provisions of the manual, if adhered to, are enough to limit the sufferings of the city-dwellers to a minimum due to the cutting of roads. Road-digging, in fact, is an essential yet trouble-making job undertaken by the service agencies. But, as alleged by city corporations, the agencies, in most cases, do not comply with the manual in question just because it lacks legal backing.
However, it actually matters little whether the manual is backed by a law or not. The issue here is enforcement. Scores of tough laws, adopted with the pious objective of protecting the interests of the people, are proving useless just because these are not being enforced properly. It is the public sector agencies that are largely to be blamed for cutting roads for laying their respective supply lines and cables or repairing the same.
Unfortunately, these agencies give a damn to public sufferings caused by indiscriminate and repeated acts of road-cutting. The Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is reportedly at the top of the list of agencies that violate the 'Road Cutting Manual' frequently.
Allegations are also galore that the city corporations do not repair roads in due time though the service agencies deposit funds with the former before embarking on their respective road-cutting jobs. The city corporations, for understandable reasons, repair the major roads with a bit of urgency. But they are found quite indifferent to doing similar kind of repair jobs in the case of peripheral and link roads in different areas of the city.
It is quite evident from the attitude of the service agencies that they are least interested to reduce the sufferings caused by their indiscriminate cutting of roads. A very recent incident remains a pointer to that fact. Under the ongoing metro rail project, the service agencies were asked to lay their supply lines in a single pit to avoid repeated cutting of roads. But the agencies concerned behaved as usual --- they came one after another and dug the road from Agargaon to Mirpur Section 12 separately to relocate their respective service lines. Thus, the commuters are condemned to suffer for a long time.
The lack of coordination among the agencies is cited as the primary reason behind the people's sufferings due to indiscriminate cutting of roads. The introduction of the system of City Government, with mayors as the head, is often touted as the most effective way of ridding the city of this serious problem. But that appears to be more of an assumption than a practical and well-crafted solution. The reality could be different. Unless and until the service agencies become truly responsive to the duty of lessening people's sufferings, the problem will persist. The enactment an appropriate law and its proper enforcement might help to a large extent to resolve the problem.
