A photograph carried by the Asian Age in its city page on Friday is scary to say the least. It is a private bus operating after 22 days of shutdown rules and allowed to return to the streets on condition that the owners will ensure health rules are strictly followed.
The photograph shows that passengers are struggling to get on the bus through its narrow door violating all kinds of rules. The government imposed a lockdown on 5 April to curb the spread of the coronavirus and tightened health restrictions later as the country entered the 'strictest lockdown' on 14 with all kinds of public transports banned..With the little easing of the situation shops and commercial flights were permitted followed by public transports only within the city limits on humanitarian grounds.
Already commuters have told our reporters that health rules are already being flouted and it will get worse as the Eid al-Fitr festival nears with more people going for shopping. There are fears that many buses will also start operating in inter-district routes to make quick money. Heavy traffic has returned on the streets of Dhaka giving some semblance of normal life as increasingly life has become suffocating with the pandemic around for more than a year now.
With the new Indian variant taking a heavy toll in parts of the neighbouring country, we need to be ultra-careful in ensuring all health rules are being complied with by the buses in each of the city. The concerned authorities must be firm in ensuring that health rules are followed at any cost.With both the number of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 going down daily we might become relaxed, but let us not be complacent. One mistake can cost many lives. Let us not let that happen.
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