Unskilled persons are approving ships' designs in unfair means thereby putting country's inland waterway's safety at stake.
An expert raised this alert at a discussion meeting on the present water transport system. It was held at Purana Paltan's Mukti Bhavan in the capital. Head of the BUET's Naval Architecture and Marin Engineering Department, Dr Mir Tareque Ali alleged that some design firms' conspiracy and a few dishonest officials' greed for money are behind design faults in ships.
The government should form an independent body to give ship design approvals for stopping corrupt practices and irregularities in this regard, Mir Tareque suggested.
Other discussants also urged the government to stop irregularities in ship design approval, ship survey and mastership and drivership examinations for inland waterway safety. They also demanded corruption-free Department of Shipping (DoS) and also to establish transparency and accountability in all of its functions.
National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCPSRR), a non-government right body, organized the programme marking the third death anniversary of its founder president Dr Abdur Rahim, also a former teacher of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
Aminur Rasul Babul, member-secretary of Nirapad Noupath Bastobayon Andolon, alleged that if corruption could not be stopped in mastership and drivership examinations, the number of unskilled sailors would be increased.
He demanded an independent examination board fully free from DoS. Chaired by Mohamad Shahid Mia, president of the NCPSSR, and moderated by its general secretary Ashis Kumar Dey, the function was addressed, among others, by Gonotantry Party presidium member Nurur Rahman Selim, child rights activist Tahmeen Sultana Swati, environmental activist Jalal Uddin and Hawkers Union general secretary Sekender Hayat.
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