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It is pointless to protest against and blame the government for deaths in road accidents, feels the local government minister.

"An accident is an accident," Syed Ashraful Islam said on Thursday as he was responding to a question from independent MP Fazlul Karim in parliament.

"Newspapers report that this many people have been killed in road accidents. There is no reason to protest if anyone dies in a road crash. Protests can take place if someone is killed in the street," he added.

His comment – a day after a nine-year old was crushed under the wheels of a bus in Dhaka – drew a sharp response from party colleague Tarana Halim, alsoa safe road campaigner.

An MP from the reserved seat for women, Halim had joined the protest programme in demand for safe roads after CEO Mishuk Muneir of a local television station and prominent filmmaker Tareque Masud had died in a road accident.

Standing on a point of order right after Ashraf had finished, she said, "If anyone dies in road accident because of someone's negligence, it's a murder under the Section 304 [of the Bangladesh Penal Code]."

"A road accident is not just an accident. I have stood on a point of order to protest this statement," she said.

The end-to-end remarks of the two ruling party MPs began after MP Fazlul Karim alleged that unprofessional people were getting road construction contracts on partisan considerations and through tender manipulation.

He said, "Moreover, a section of LGED officials are committing corruption. That's why the roads are lying in ruins."

Responding to his allegations, Syed Ashraf, the ruling party's general secretary, made the 'accident is accident' comment.

He also said he would take stern measures if anybody can provide him compelling evidence of corruption. "Sheikh Hasina's government does not believe in tender manipulation, extortion and corruption."

Responding to another query of Awami League MP A S M Firoz, the LGRD minister said, "It's true that money is being wasted in name of road repairing. But next year money will be spent on repairing the infrastructures built by LGED [Local Government and Engineering Department] instead of on building bridges, culverts and roads."

Answering Bogra-1 MP Abdul Mannan, Ashraf said, "Nineteen greater districts including Bogra and Rangpur will be declared as city corporations before the government's term ends."