How to discourage unethical practices in the private yards, which do not follow QC standards? Fake documents are killers! [Same in the building construction industry.]

The training institutions for serangs (masters) and crew is a grey area, and public awareness and publicity are poor (why?). The wireless navigation and warning network is in woeful condition, and completely inadequate to cope with the operation of thousands of launches and big boats in the 300 rivers of riverine and deltaic Bangladesh. The government controlled electronic media ignore these sectors for publicity (too much political publicity, ignoring the activities of public-service institutions).

The established IWT institutions need overhaul and modernisation. The society is undisciplined, hence proper monitoring of the private sector activities is necessary to maintain safety standards (compare with land grabbing, smuggling of mobile telephones, drug addiction, meter reading, and politicisation of the public services).

The politicians do too much politics in the background and foreground, neglecting direct participation in public services which are visible to the man in the street. Addressing public meeting is a low-priority service, because good work does not remain hidden (note how the Ctg Mayor was re-elected for the third term). Our politicians are not technically oriented, and leave such tasks to the bureaucracy. The latter are file-oriented, and subservient to the political masters. Who give the orders, who listen, and who monitor and regulate? It is a rotten system (politically speaking).

We are beating about the bush, and the political will is simply not there in any of the two major political parties, who are hawking (feriwallas) past names to retain power by hook or by crook. Many voters have lost faith in politics. Why talk cynically about democracy and development, when there is no development in political culture?