TIB demands removal of two ministers

TIB demands removal of two ministers

Dhaka, Aug 2 (Just News): Transparency International Bangladesh on Thursday demanded removal of shipping minister Shajahan Khan and state minister for LGRD Moshiur Rahman Ranga as their being minister is directly in conflict of interests.

Addressing a press conference at its office in the capital, TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the ministers are involved in leading posts of the transport workers and owners’ associations while they holding the public offices which obvious have conflict of interest.

He said that a person cannot hold the post if minister and labour leader at the same time.

‘There are two ministers like this. We demand removal of them as we want transparency and accountability in transport sector,’ the TIB executive director said.

Shipping minister Shajahan Khan is executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, umbrella body of transport sector trade unions, and state minister for local government and rural development Moshiur Rahman is president of the National Road Transport Owners’ Association of Bangladesh.

Iftekharuzzaman said that the transport sector was tangled in a triangle cycle of corruption – politics, business and administration.

He said that TIB extended its fully support the students’ movement in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country demanding discipline in the transport sector following recent deaths of two students on the Airport Road.

The government has long been ignoring the road safety issue and there was no practical and sincere initiative to improve the traffic situation.

Rather, authorities have protected those responsible for deaths on the streets, he said.

He said that tradition of skipping from justice cannot continue.

‘Those who find conspiracy in this movement are actually the conspirators,’ he said.

Iftekharuzzaman made the remarks while speaking on the sideline of a press conference on transparency in foreign-funded NGOs in Bangladesh.

(Justnews/ys/2230hr)