Home Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury gave the directive while presiding over a review meeting of the law and order monitoring cell at the home ministry yesterday.

He said 7,000 BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) and Ansar personnel have already been deployed to help police ensure security of city-dwellers.

A decision to deploy additional BDR troops was also taken to maintain law and order.

Each police station of the capital were directed to seize at least 50 unauthorised rickshaws as part of a drive to throw out unlicenced rickshaws from the streets of Dhaka, meeting sources said.

The meeting was informed that an additional team of strike force equipped with tow-trucks would be deployed in the city from 11:00pm to 7:00am to take away broken down vehicles left on the road.

Police were ordered to immediately expedite river patrol on the Buriganga using work boats of the shipping ministry and prevent vessel overloading to ensure safety of launch passengers.

The meeting warned against overcharging homebound passengers during Eid holidays and asked police to work with the BIWTA (Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority) to prevent harassment of passengers over fare.

Authorities were also directed to take measures against ticket sale on the black market at bus, launch and train terminals.

Three mobile courts have already been posted at bus, train and launch terminals to punish transport operators overcharging passengers. Magistrates have been authorised to increase the penalty in some cases, meeting sources said.

The home minister told the meeting that the city's law and order improved and incidents of extortion came down significantly during Ramadan due to the steps taken by the law-enforcing agencies.

The meeting also discussed the traffic situation and decided to extend duration of traffic duty until 1:00am instead of 11:00pm considering the Eid rush.

The meeting was informed that 20 mobile courts filed 5,975 cases so far and realised Tk 37.58 lakh in fines for infractions. Twenty-nine people were arrested and 13 of them sent to jail for failing to pay fine.

The mobile courts also seized 42 vehicles for breaking traffic rules and closed two factories for producing adulterated food.

To check cheating in measurement, 146 faulty scales and 87 weighing stones were seized during Ramadan.

State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, Home Secretary Mohammad Omar Farooq, Inspector General of Police Shahudul Haque, the director general of Ansar and VDP, the chief metropolitan magistrate, and high officials of police and home ministry were present.