Laws related to public nuisances that affect citizens’ rights are hardly applied, allowing such offenders to go unpunished in most cases for such offences in public places.
The Penal Code, 1860, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1976, and some special laws treat public nuisances as crimes and prescribe financial penalties and jail terms for a limited period for perpetrators.Â
Legal experts observed that law enforcement agencies were reluctant to enforce laws on such a petty crime as they remain busy dealing with other issues.
They also expressed the need to create public awareness about the presence of such laws and punishment for public nuisances.Â
Any act that results in injury, danger, or annoyance to the public or people in general or creates obstructions for a person who may have occasion to use any public right is considered a public nuisance, according to Penal Code, 1860.
Anyone who does any obscene act in any public place and sings, recites, or utters any obscene songs, ballads, or words in or near any public place shall be punished with imprisonment for up to three months, with a fine, or with both, according to the penal code.
DMP ordinance 1976 prohibits and prescribes penalties for committing public nuisances like smoking and spitting, honking beyond the prescribed limit, obstructing or annoying passengers in the streets, misbehaviour with the intent to provoke a breach of peace, and indecent behaviour in public.
Spitting or throwing any litter or rubbish, using indecent language or behaving indecently or riotously, rush driving, fixing bills or otherwise defacing buildings, exposing offensive ailments for begging, bathing, or washing in unauthorised places, obstructing in any street or public place by keeping or storing building materials or other articles, and making or repairing vehicles in a street or public place are also considered public nuisances as per the DMP ordinance.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s deputy commissioner (media and public relations) Faruk Hossain told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Sunday that the police apply laws to prevent public nuisance when it is necessary.
‘Citizens can seek police intervention by dialling 999 to prevent public nuisances in their locality,’ Faruk said.
He said that police arrest many citizens every day and bring them to the magistrates on charges of creating a public nuisance when their minor crimes do not warrant them to be prosecuted in a criminal case.Â
Whoever smokes or spits in any building or place occupied by the government or any other authorities, ignoring the notice affixed to such building or place shall be punished with a fine up to Tk 100, according to Section 83 of the DMP ordinance.
Jurist Shahdeen Malik said that the widespread social problems would not stop soon unless the government authorities put an emphasis on social campaigns against public nuisances.
He said that it might not be necessary to let people know the punishment for committing theft, but it was necessary to make them aware of the laws and punishment for creating various kinds of public nuisance.Â
A fine of up to Tk 200 may be imposed on anyone who, without the owner’s or occupier’s permission, attaches any paper or notices in any way to any building, wall, tree fence, post pole, or other structure using chalk, ink, paint, or any other material, according to Section 95 of the DMP ordinance.
Other public nuisances include obstructions of footways and streets, playing music or beating drums or other instruments and blowing horns or other noisy instruments, hanging or placing any cord or pole across a street, making projections or structures obstructing traffic, and restricting illumination of streets and public places.
Human rights lawyer Manzill Murshid said that laws against public nuisances are largely ignored and do not have an impact, as punishment or financial penalties for nuisance creators are nominal.
‘Steps should be taken immediately to impose stern punishments for nuisance creators and empower all the authorities concerned, alongside members of the law enforcement agencies, to enforce the laws to prevent the nagging nuisance in the public sphere,’ Manzill said.Â
Cities and municipalities get flooded with posters, billboards, and other propaganda materials, causing nuisance to dwellers as there was no enforcement of the Graffiti Writing and Poster Sticking Control Act 2012.
The rarely enforced laws include the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act 2005, the Bangladesh Tourism Reserved Area and Special Tourism Zone Act 2010, the Vagrants and Shelterless Persons (Rehabilitation) Act 2011, the Bangladesh Hotel and Restaurant Act 2014, the Mental Health Act 2018, and the Penal Code stipulations on public nuisance and obscenity.
The Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage Act has banned smoking in public places and public transport and restricted the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of tobacco products and the use of tobacco items.
But people smoke rampantly everywhere and sell tobacco products everywhere as there is little enforcement of the law, according to legal experts and anti-tobacco campaigners.
