A child was seen driving a tempo, top, on an important and busy road in the port city while another boy, bottom, works as an assistant of tempo drivers.Photo: STAR

“When the boys of my age enjoyed their days in classrooms reading books and playing in the playground I had to hang by the tempo handle”, said Reaz Uddin.
Reaz, now 26, said he joined his tempo driver brother-in-law as an assistant in the port city at the age of 14.
He said this while narrating the story of his becoming a three-wheeler tempo driver.
Wiping his tears with a dirty cloth, he said he used to get Tk 60 a day as an assistant working from dawn to midnight. He used to send Tk 800 to his family a month. He said he was injured seriously while he was getting down from a running tempo and was bedridden for three months.
He became a driver at the age of 16 after working for two years as an assistant, Reaz said, adding that he now earns Tk 400-500 a day.
Child workers in the transport sector are very common in the port city. It is becoming a noisy city day by day as a huge number of people from rural areas come to the city everyday to earn their livelihoods. Many take shelter in the city slums along with their adolescent children, most of whom find their jobs in tempos.
Sources said three-wheeler auto-tempo was first introduced in Chittagong in 1987 with 650 tempos.
Nazrul Islam, secretary of Chittagong Auto-tempo Drivers and Assistants Union, said 950 tempos are running in the port city. There are 1,500 tempo drivers and 2,500 assistants working, Nazrul said, adding that, of them, one third are adolescents.
Sources said the owners engage the untrained adolescent drivers to deprive them. Nazrul said they collect fake licenses in exchange for money. Sometimes traffic sergeants get confused in verifying these licenses.
When asked, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP-Traffic), Chittagong Faruk Ahmed said the problem has arisen due to lack of co-ordination between the Department of Traffic and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
“When we go for checking the licenses, the drivers show us these. Many of these are false. But we are to wait for at least two to three days to check. If there was co-ordination between BRTA and traffic department, we could take quick decision for action,” Faruk said.
Faruk underscored the need for online facilities for quick action to resolve the chaos in the transport sector, blaming the tempo owners of handing over the vehicles to the adolescents to drive.
Abul Kashem Sarkar, president of Chittagong Auto-tempo Owners' Association, said they only permit the license-holders to drive their vehicles. It is not their concern to verify whether the license is genuine or false. It is the duty of traffic department to verify the license.
Admitting the importance of online facilities for co-ordination between the BRTA and traffic department, Salim Ullah, BRTA license inspector, said they regularly conduct drives to identify the fake license holders.
Rashed Hasan, a commuter, said they are to get on the tempos driven by the adolescents risking lives as there is a crisis of vehicles in the port city. He said they have to wait for a long time during the rush hours to catch a vehicle.
Faruk said they will soon take initiatives to introduce more vehicles in the city's thoroughfares. They will also conduct a training programme for the drivers, he added.
Lack of co-ordination between the BRTA and traffic department has created immense threat to the commuters. The commuters want to reach their destination timely and safely. It is their earnest demand to the government for adequate vehicles and trained drivers in the city's thoroughfares.