An investigation into the waste management transport fleet of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has revealed a pervasive and dangerous practice of deploying unauthorized personnel and external helpers to drive heavy garbage trucks instead of officially assigned drivers.
The alarming practice came to light during a nocturnal stakeout at the Poura Filling Station in the Sayedabad area on October 4 (early hours of October 5 at approximately 12:45 AM). A DSCC waste collection truck bearing registration number 11-4303 arrived for refueling, operated not by its designated driver, Sardar Humayun Kabir, but by Saju Ahmed, an outsider earning a monthly salary of 10,000 taka as an assistant. Saju candidly admitted to having only a light vehicle driving license while maneuvering a heavy municipal vehicle. Although the vehicle was allocated to Kabir, the assigned driver was reportedly loitering nearby at the Golapbagh intersection. Saju abruptly fled the scene without taking fuel after realizing a journalist was present, subsequently tipping off other operators.
This recurring disregard for regulations echoes past tragedies that claimed innocent lives on the capital's streets. Approximately five years ago, Notre Dame College student Nayeem Hasan was crushed to death by a DSCC garbage truck that was similarly being driven by an unauthorized substitute rather than the official driver. Subsequent fatal accidents involving schoolboy Mahin Ahmed and laundry worker Iqbal Hossain exposed the exact same systemic irregularities. DSCC records indicate that from 2018 until October 4 of this year, at least 15 fatal accidents involving the corporation's waste vehicles resulted in 16 deaths, following another deadly collision in Basabo the previous year that killed two more individuals, bringing the total toll to 18 fatalities across 16 incidents since 2017. Unauthorized personnel were found at the steering wheel in at least three of these fatal cases.
Investigations spanning multiple DSCC facilities uncovered that at least 22 waste transport vehicles are routinely handed over to unauthorized individuals, with internal sources estimating the actual figure to be at least 56 vehicles. Under this illicit arrangement, a section of officially assigned drivers continue to draw government salaries while outsourcing their operational duties to assistants or external parties. Compounding this malpractice are allegations of fuel misappropriation, where drivers allegedly draw partial fuel quotas and pocket the remaining cash. During subsequent checks on the night of October 5 (at around 10:30 PM) near the Sayedabad bus terminal garage, at least 35 drivers massed around the reporting team after news of the journalistic presence spread, prompting an intervention by a senior DSCC official to safely evacuate the area before specific target vehicles like 11-4270 and 11-4307 could be inspected.
Confronted with these findings, Shah Alam Talukdar, president of the DSCC Transport Driver Workers Employees Union, did not completely deny the irregularities, acknowledging that outsiders are occasionally permitted to drive and admitting that mistakes certainly exist. However, he claimed that surveillance has been stepped up following the media inquiry and that assistants are no longer allowed behind the wheel, while attempting to justify long working hours. Conversely, DSCC Administrator Md. Abdus Salam expressed grave concern over the continuing fatalities, emphasizing that even a single death is unacceptable. He has issued strict directives prohibiting anyone without a valid license from operating municipal vehicles and warned that punitive action will be taken against both the derelict driver and supervising officials if assistants are found driving. Official DSCC statistics show the corporation maintains a total of 608 vehicles and heavy machinery—including excavators, road rollers, and bulldozers—against a permanent roster of only 252 drivers, forcing a reliance on cleaners, mosquito control workers, and other personnel to bridge the severe deficit.
