Holidaymakers or rules breakers?

Scores of home-bound people are rushing home defying the Covid induced lockdown flouting all health protocols and ignoring the risks of infections.  Despite the government ban on inter-district public transport movement, holidaymakers seem to be desperate in their attempt to get home, no matter what happens. 

While the neighbouring India is ravaged by the onslaught of Covid and a few cases of dangerous high-spreading Indian variant are detected on Saturday, it still rings no bell in our collective psyche that the risk of infection is real; at least so it appears.

Saturday morning, one hell of a chaos unfolded at the Munshiganj’s Shimulia ferry terminal when thousands of people found themselves stranded following the suspension of ferry services to curb the spread of the coronavirus. In fact, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) took the decision after witnessing such crazy rush of travellers.  

“We believe such a rush of travellers will raise the number of infections when the country is experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak,” said Nazrul Islam Misha, a spokesman for the corporation. 

BIWTC announced the decision on Friday night after the ferries, crossing the river, were swarmed with passengers throughout the day. The decision was announced effective from Saturday on Paturia-Daulatdia and Kanthalbari-Banglabazar routes. However, The ferries will operate in the night only for vehicles carrying goods.

“Vehicles carrying dead bodies and for very important reasons will be transported under special arrangements,” he added.  

Earlier, heavy crowds of people returning home for Eid descended on Munshiganj’s Shimulia port despite pandemic health restrictions. The number of ferry passengers has increased because launches and speedboats are not allowed to operate, said Md Shafiqul Islam, an assistant general manager of BIWTC.

Unable to cope with the onrush of passengers, some ferries departed without a single vehicle on board. As a result, over 1,000 freight and private vehicles were congesting the area around the port.

While long-haul buses were restricted during the lockdown, people are piling into smaller transports, like freight trucks or pick-ups, to make their way from Dhaka to Shimulia to cross the Padma to head home to the southern districts. Massive crowds of people were gathered on the ferry pier on Friday morning, defying lockdown. Thousands of people were seen taking the ferries on foot, while freight trucks and other vehicles were stuck on the other side of the river.

All 87 launches on this river route have ceased operating due to the lockdown, BIWTC official Shafiqul confirmed adding that some 450 speedboats and several hundred trawlers have also halted operations since the speedboat crash in Madaripur’s Shibchar. 

“These put all the pressure on the ferries,” he said.

In addition, three of the 16 ferries on the Shimulia-Banglabazar route are inoperable so it has been difficult to cope with the crowds with only 13 ferries running, Shafiqul added.

Meanwhile, the sudden shutdown of ferries has caused immense sufferings to travellers. A long tailback of vehicles formed in the terminal area. 

The shutdown of public transport has led to travellers paying extra for taxis while some chose to walk to the port. Heading back is not an option for many as they do not have the money for transport. Many are residing in the terminal area and are suffering in the sweltering heat.    

Following the suspension of ferries, Shafiqul said, there is no crossing of the Padma as launches, speedboats and ferries are shut. Besides, the authorities and the river police are keeping a close watch on the proceedings.

In the morning, people were seen trying to cross the river by fishing trawlers. But the administration stopped them and told the people to go back.

Long-haul buses defy ban on Dhaka-Tangail Highway

Meanwhile long-distance public transport were seen have been seen plying the Dhaka-Tangail Highway on Saturday defying the ban.

The result has been unprecedented traffic on the Bangabandhu Bridge as homebound people left the capital in large numbers, defying the government-imposed travel ban to curb the transmission of the coronavirus infection.

Besides, people were also seen travelling on various private vehicles, including trucks, pickup vans, private cars and motorcycles.

Hygiene is not being maintained as people were travelling in a congested manner, returning home despite the risk of infection. The same scene was observed at various points of the highway till Saturday afternoon

Heavy traffic was reported on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway since early Saturday morning. 

Yasir Arafat, in charge of the Elenga Highway police outpost, said that the pressure suddenly mounted on the Dhaka-Tangail-Bangabandhu Bridge Highway following the suspension of the Shimulia-Banglabazar and Paturia-Daulatdia ferry services on Saturday morning.

He said the traffic would normalize as the day progressed. In the meantime, police were slapping fines on the long-distance buses for disobeying the travel ban, he added.

While, the desire of the people desperate to reach home ahead of Eid, knows no bound, it is really the high time to take stern actions to check the crazy people travel to tackle the deadly Covid pandemic. 

There’s no denial of harsh economic reality and the need for going out for the sake of livelihood, there’s also no way to ignore the risks that might pose to the lives of loved ones, families and friends when people go reckless. And the mad rush for holidaymaking defying ban and safely protocols are indeed reckless and must be dealt strictly, even mercilessly.

Reckless travellers pose serious threat to lives of loved ones, seniors in families