The High Court on Monday issued a rule questioning why it shouldn't give the direction to create a financial assistance fund under a board of trustees, from which payments towards compensation packages and medical costs of casualties in road crashes could be made.
A bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order to implement the section 53 and 54 of Road Transport Act-2018 during a virtual hearing on a writ petition filed in this regard.
The secretaries to the Road Transport and Highways; Law, and Finance divisions; senior secretary of the Security Service Division of the Home Ministry, and the chairman of BRTA were made respondents to the rule, and asked to submit within a period of four weeks.
Advocate Manoj Kumar Bhowmik presented the petitioner’s side during the hearing while Deputy Attorney general Bipul Bagmar stood for the state.
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On August 17, five lawyers of the Supreme Court including Manoj Kumar sent a legal notice to the defendants to take steps for implementing the RTA in full.
Receiving no reply, they filed a writ petition at the High Court challenging the inactivity of the authorities on Sunday. Advocate Manoj Kumar said, according to the act a fund and a trustee board were supposed to be formed to compensate the deceased or rather their families, injured people in road accidents, and their heirs.
But in the three years since the passage of the act in parliament, large sections of it clearly lie neglected. That includes the lack of any steps no steps to create such a fund have been taken by the government hence the legal notice and writ petition was submitted, he said.
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