A school with dormitories for students, teachers and employees built on 12-acre land could not be run in the past 18 years, reveals a report carried in a leading Bangla contemporary on Wednesday. The location of the school is on a hill in enchanting Khagrachhari. Built by the Parbatya Chattogram Unnayan Board (PCUB) at a cost of Tk50 million, the abandoned property is left to ruin. Of the three such schools ---one each in Rajastholi upazila, Ruma upazila and Ramgar upazila --- undertaken to construct in 2004 by the (PCUB), the two located in Rajastholi and Ruma could be started in 2005 but the one at Ramgar could not follow suit. The money spent on the buildings has been a total waste.
In a country where pitiable conditions of schools are reported from different corners of the country, the construction of decent residential accommodation for students, teaching and administrative staff on the school campus in addition to classrooms and then putting those to disuse are symptomatic of the archaic development parameter. Let alone the school that cost Tk 50 million ---which may even be double the value now after 18 years, multistoried buildings constructed for government officials at fabulous costs wait in vain for their intended occupants year after year.
According to a report carried in the same Bangla contemporary on November 17, last year, 1,800 flats of 34 buildings ready for receiving government officials and staff for whose those were built remained unoccupied after several months to two years of their completion. Located in Katherkarkhana area and Shialbari of Mirpur in the capital, in Aliganj under Narayanganj, 17 such buildings are 14-storied. The flats of 1,250 and 1,500 square feet were meant for senior assistant secretary-level officials and deputy secretaries respectively. Flats below 1,250 sq ft were meant for lower grade officials and employees.
When the crisis of decent accommodations is acute in the capital for people in the bracket of low-income to middle and even higher middle class people, strangely there was almost no taker of these exclusive government quarters. Only 548 out of a total of 2348 flats could host their allotted residents. Government officials and employees expressed their strong resentment to live in those flats for three reasons: 1) the distance; 2) there is no quality educational institutions nearby where the officials and employees can send their children and wards; 3) a good portion of their salary would be deducted as rent for living in those quarters.
Since the publication of the report, a year has passed. It is unlikely that the high government officials have had a change of heart by this time. Now the distance between Mirpur and the secretariat is 13 kilometre and Aliganj is at a distance of 15 kilometre from the central administrative seat. Deputy secretaries and other high officials have their cars provided by the government. So a distance of 13 to 15 kilometre should not be a problem for them. Their objection to their intended living quarters in relation to their children's schooling, however, cannot be overlooked. So far as their salary deduction for living in government accommodation is concerned, it would be the same if they could receive allotment in government staff quarters at Azimpur, Motijheel and Eskaton---their top preferences.
If the residential accommodations in Mirpur and Aliganj cannot attract government officials and employees, what can be the justification of constructing nine such buildings in Noakhali's Maijdee? No government official or employee even submitted an application for allotment after four months of the completion of the flats.
Then there were reports that teachers of a science and technology university preferred not to stay in residential accommodation built at some distance from the university. Instead, the teachers opted for living in rented houses in the town. Similarly, newly constructed hospital buildings also remain unused because of a lack of initiative. The list of infrastructure ---such as bridges without roads or with roads but not connected to those for vehicles or people to use --- on which public money is being wasted is long.
Clearly, the projects undertaken so are unfeasible right from the beginning because no prior feasibility study was done. The rush to spend public money is the governing motive. There is no qualm about wasting public money. A classic case of defective plan is the construction of bridges with lower height around the capital. This causes obstruction to movement of vessels on waterways in peak monsoon when the rivers and their tributaries are in spate.
Finally, the current spree of development involving re-excavation and reconstruction of sewerage lines in most localities of the city give an insight to a most horrendous type of public work. Areas that have never experienced inundation are also brought under extensive digging. The excavated lanes and alleys have been left open for a month or even months to the suffering of the locals. No vehicle can negotiate those streets or lanes and the only way is to walk with extreme care. If there is an emergency like carrying a critical patient to hospital or a fire incident, things are sure to turn serious. Even the footpath cover made of ceramic slabs that would have lasted for decades are now being demolished, pray, for what purpose? Interestingly, the stretch of road from Shahbag to Science Laboratory crossing full of dangerous potholes is no one's baby. This country now confronting extreme financial hardship can ill afford the kind of atrocious wastage in the name of pseudo development.
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