Md Jahangir Fakir, father of Diya Khanam Mim who along with another student died in a recent city road crash, on Thursday urged the students to go back home as he hoped that the Prime Minister will take effective steps to check road accidents.He made the call during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We want students to go back home as measures will be taken to prevent such accidents in the future,” Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted Jahangir Fakir as saying.
Apart from Diya’s father, her mother, brother and sister, another victim Abdul Karim Rajib’s mother Mahima Begum and sister and Principal of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin College Nur Nahar Yasmin met the Prime Minister.
While briefing reporters after the meeting, Ihsanul Karim said Sheikh Hasina consoled the bereaved family members and donated a saving certificate of Tk 20 lakh to each of the families.
On Sunday, Diya Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib, students of the college section of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin School and College, were killed as a ‘Jabal-e-Noor Paribahan’ bus ploughed through some students in front of Kurmitola General Hospital on Airport Road in the city.
The tragic accident sparked off huge countrywide student protests that were continuing for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday. Diya’s father Jahangir Fakir turned emotional while talking to the Prime Minister, said the PM’s Press Secretary.
Expressing sympathy to the family members, the Prime Minister said she had no word to console them and she understood their pain as she lost her most of the family members overnight.
Jahangir Fakir who is also a bus driver raised some problems of the transport sector before the Prime Minister and said bus and truck drivers become exhausted due to non-stop long drives, which lead to accidents in many cases.
He said they expect that necessary measures will be taken to prevent such road accidents in the future and agitating students will go back home leaving the streets.
The members of the two families expressed their gratitude to the Prime Minister for the meeting.Sheikh Hasina attentively listened to the speeches of Jahangir and other family members.
The Prime Minister said directives have already been given so that no vehicle can move on roads without having fitness and licence.
She said measures are also being taken to set up restrooms for drivers at regular intervals on highways.
Ramiz Uddin College’s Principal Nur Nahar Yeasmin said many students of her college belong to the poor families and they come to the college from distant places, including Gazipur and Kapasia.
She requested the Prime Minister for arrangement of buses for her college students to travel from and to the institution.
The Prime Minister instantly took some decisions, including deployment of traffic police at road-crossing adjacent to all schools in the city and construction of speed-breakers on roads adjacent to schools to prevent road accidents.
The other decisions are construction of an underpass at airport road, adjacent to Ramos Uddin College, and providing five buses for students of the college.
She asked the children of the two families to pursue their study attentively.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Principal Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office Md. Nojibur Rahman, Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Md Sohorab Hossain and PMO Secretary Sajjadul Hassan were present.
source:UNB
