Two newly-elected mayors of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) announced on Thursday their plans to launch a drive to evict illegal occupants from footpaths of the capital.
They will take support of the government's different agencies for stopping illegal occupation permanently for giving respite to the city-dwellers and easing traffic movement.
As part of the drive, DCC South Mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon announced launching of the drive in Gulistan area on June 01 while DCC North Mayor Annisul Huq will do the same in Farmgate area on June 12.
From July 01, a coordinated drive will be launched to free all footpaths of illegal occupants gradually, it was also announced.
The two mayors made the vow during the board meeting of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA).
"We have to take the decision even if it is bitter as we want to make the Gulistan area clean and show people the difference," said the DCC South Mayor in the meeting.
During the meeting, the DCC North Mayor said: "Without this action, we cannot give respite to the city people. We know poor people cannot grab the footpaths. It is done under some muscle power and 'shadow' of influential people."
He, however, expressed his confidence that eviction from any illegally occupied land will be made possible with the government's strong support.
The two elected mayors attended the DTCA board meeting as their first official activities after being elected in April. This was also the first time that any mayor attended the DTCA board meeting. They are the vice chairmen of the board.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader presided over the sixth board meeting as its chairman and announced launching of the eviction drive officially from July 01 with the target to free all footpaths of illegal occupants gradually in a coordinated way.
He said before launching the formal drive, efforts will be taken to hold talks with all stakeholders including people's representatives.
"We do not want to do anything overnight by creating anarchy but I am now confident that what I could not do earlier can do now after getting two newly-elected mayors with us," Quader, the chairman of the board said.
The nearly two-hour meeting took the decision to seek assistance from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Local Government and others to help the DCC South and North conduct the drive formally.
The sixth DTCA board meeting held after three months was represented by the highest number of stakeholders for the first time.
They included mayors of Narsingdi, Munshiganj, Savar pourashava, Gazipur and Narayanganj city corporations, Secretaries of Roads Transport Highways Division, Railway, Shipping, Foreign Affairs and Environment and Local Government.
Director General of Bangladesh Railway, Chief Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, Chairmen of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, acting IGP and Joint Commissioner of Traffic Police were also present. DTCA Executive Director, Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development project director and Bus Rapid Transit project director attended.
However, despite being an important stakeholder, the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhha did not send any representative of its chairman to the meeting. Also there was no representation from the president of the road transport related association in the meeting.
Though the DTCA board meeting is to coordinate the transport related projects, the members of the board, however, were engaged in sharing different problems of their respective areas to seek help from the DTCA.
All the city corporation and pourasava mayors talked about dumping wastes and getting lands for bus terminal.
The meeting finally took the decision to prepare a list of illegally occupied lands owned by RHD, LGED, LGRD and Bangladesh Railway for the DTCA within 15 days to send it to the road safety council for use as dumping grounds for waste of different city corporations and pourasavas.
During the meeting, the acting IGP expressed his confidence to make the drive successful. "With the help of others, we can uproot all behind illegal occupation," he told the meeting.
Mr Obaidul Quader said the drive will gradually evict illegal occupants from parks and roads to make the city 'clean and green'.
smunima@yahoo.com
Drive to evict illegal occupants from footpaths next month
FE Report | Published: May 29, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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