Fifteen prominent citizens of various professions have called for grooming and recruiting skilled masters and drivers of water vessels to prevent accidents.
For this, they called for reforming the inland mastership and drivership examination system and immediately abolishing the existing examination boards, followed by forming two fresh boards, according to a joint statement issued on Tuesday.
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The statement also demanded the formation of two separate examination boards, including experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and Bangladesh Marine Academy, and not to include "controversial officials" in the new boards.
Pointing out that majority of accidents on inland waterways are caused by incompetent boatmen, the statement said, the present system of mastership and drivership examination is unacceptable.
The written test of only 20 marks for both mastership and drivership consists of 20 short questions to be answered by tick marks on the question paper.
It is not possible at all to determine the efficiency and competency of a boatman in this process, it added.
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According to the statement, the two chairmen of the mastership and drivership examination boards are officers of the Department of Shipping. Other members of the two boards are also working for the same organisation. They are the ones who prepare the question paper, take the written test, and evaluate the answer sheet.
Apart from this, the board members conduct the oral examination and award the certificates. Because of this, there is a considerable lack of transparency and accountability, the statement said.
Citing news published in various media, the 15 renowned citizens complained that because of the sole authority of the DoS, there were "rampant irregularities and corruption" in the examination. "Candidates are making illegal money transactions through brokers before every exam. As a result most of the candidates are ineligible," the statement says.
The signatories of the statement are: vice president of Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) SM Najer Hussain; freedom fighter Nurur Rahman Selim; former director general of water resources planning organisation and prominent environmentalist engineer M. Inamul Haque; chief executive of Nagorik Uddog Zakir Hossain; Supreme Court lawyer Harunur Rashid; general secretary of Udichi Shilpi Gosthi Amit Ranjan Dey; president of the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways Mohammad Shahid Mia; member secretary of Nirapad Nou Path Bastobayan Andolan Aminur Rasul Babul; senior marine engineer Md. Abdul Hamid; prominent children's organiser Tahmin Sultana Swati; executive director of Dip Unnayan Sangstha and freedom fighter Rafiqul Alam; executive director of Poverty Immunization Assistance Centre for Everywhere (PEACE) Ifma Hussain; president of Alokito Garments Sramik Federation Bappidev Burman; president of Puran Dhaka Nagorik Uddog Nazim Uddin; and central coordinator of Janalok Rafiqul Islam Sujan.