While we welcome the government passing the Road Transport Act 2018, we cannot but wonder why some of its provisos have not been put into effect as yet. For example, the rules for the Trustee Board set up to deal with compensation claims are yet to be framed.

We recall that the final version of the Road Transport Act was very long in coming. A new law for governing the road transport sector to replace the archaic Motor Vehicle Ordinance of 1983 was in the works for decades, and it took two young lives that led to a passionate student movement, for the Bangladesh Road Transport Act 2018 to be passed in the parliament. But it was another year before it could be implemented since the rules of procedures that were required to enforce it were not formulated sooner.

It is interesting that while the Road Transport Act 2018 and the Digital Security Act 2018 were passed on the same day, the latter became effective immediately. The authorities did not feel inhibited by the need to have the necessary rules in place before putting it into effect, while it is taking years to implement the new transport act fully.

It may not be irrelevant to mention that there has been a lot of foot dragging on the matter. And the common public refrain that the authorities have baulked under the undue pressure of the road transport owners and workers is not unfounded. Unfortunately this sector is in the grip of people with strong political links, who have forced much of the dilution in the originally proposed levels of punishments.   We suggest that the back and forth movement of the draft rules should stop somewhere. There is no reason why the relevant rules should have taken so long to be formulated and that too in an incomplete form. Victims' or their relatives should not have to wait indefinitely to get their claims because of lack of rules of procedures. The Road Transport Act 2018 should be implemented immediately and in full.