RAJUK needs to be disciplined urgently
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Shahiduzzaman Khan
PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina castigated the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) for its past negligence that led to the unplanned growth of the capital Dhaka city. She said this agency had allowed scores of buildings to be constructed without any plans, putting the city into a messy state.
While laying the foundation of a project to build apartments for lower and lower-middle income groups in Uttara last week, the Prime Minister said in the past RAJUK allowed construction of multi-storied buildings without looking into the condition of the utility services like water, gas, sewerage lines and electricity. She asked the RAJUK and other concerned authorities to make sure that the utility services were in place before giving any permission in the future.
Sheikh Hasina noted that it was a practice in the past to give permission illegally in exchange for money without considering the future consequences. 'This will no longer be acceptable,' she said. She directed the authorities concerned to consider environment and climate aspects before giving any kind of permission for high-rise buildings and housing plots.
Indeed, cases of irregularities against RAJUK are galore. Thousands of reports were published in the media concerning such irregularities. Last year, a parliamentary committee asked RAJUK authorities to prepare a list of persons who got allocation of plots and flats in the city during 2002 to 2008 through political influence cancelling previous allotments to others. The parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings also asked the agency to submit details about the government's tenure-wise irregularities that had taken since 1973 to until to date. The committee blasted the state real estate authorities for its financial anomalies including not keeping its audit reports. It also directed RAJUK authorities to take actions against those who have built houses and structures violating its building code.
Very recently, RAJUK has started door-to-door inspection of the countless number of high-rise buildings in the city to verify their legitimacy. According to reports, around 40 building inspectors from four different zones are studying the high rise buildings and their surrounding areas including the width of the adjacent streets, open spaces and parking facilities. Such detailed inspection is expected help the authorities to smoke out the bottlenecks and irregularities that exist in the system for future developments. Yet the question arises as to the honest nature of the high-rise study. It should be noted here that the same set of people were behind giving approval of these high-rise buildings. How can a neutral and fair judgement be expected from them?
According to the Building Construction Rules 1996, structures of six stories and above can be bracketed as high-rise buildings. The act also discloses that a 9-storey high-rise building would be permissible only if the adjacent street has a minimum width of 25 feet. However, the entire city is virtually swarming with buildings crossing the 6-storey mark in even the most cramped of areas. Majority of these buildings were either constructed without any authorisation from RAJUK or are in total violation of the proper construction rules. Although rules prohibit the construction of any high-rise building if the adjacent street lengths are below 25 feet, there are countless instances where the city has as high as 20 storied buildings adjacent to streets as narrow as 10 feet. Worst areas of this haphazard urbanisation include city areas like Dhanmondi, Jhigatola, Rayer Bazar, Green Road, Azimpur, Malibagh, Mogbazar, Rampura, Mirpur, Segunbagicha etc.
A survey conducted some years back suggests that there are around 4,376 buildings ranging from six to 22 storeys high in around 66 localities of the city. Although RAJUK officials have no idea on how many of these structures were built following proper construction rules, it is believed that almost 95 per cent of the buildings had deviated from the concerned rules. Anomalies behind faulty approval or non-approval of high-rise buildings include mainly political and destructive pressures and lobbying in connivance with a corrupt section of RAJUK officials. Corrupt practices at all the agencies concerned and finally at RAJUK, connivance and political pressures are what were applied for managing dubious approval of high-rise buildings. A large section of landowners, developers, engineers and architects are involved in the irregularities. RAJUK, the sole authority to approve building plans and to monitor construction, is riddled with corruption where anyone can get anything done through a team of highly influential and well-linked middlemen.
For approval of buildings above 6-storeys high, the developers have to seek clearances from 16 government agencies including Department of Environment, Civil Aviation, Fire services, WASA, DESA, DCC, CAAB and Titas Gas. However, according to a real estate developer who built a ten-storey structure in the capital city these clearances tend to be readily available through RAJUK middlemen for a hefty sum of money. It is an open secret that these papers are issued without any inspection or question asked by any authority. But for the sake of an approved plan, these need to be bought, said the developer.
During the fag end of the caretaker government, applications were invited for distributing 6000 plots in Purbachal and 800 plots in Uttara. Every time top brass of the RAJUK had faced the media said that the plots would be distributed during the tenure of the caretaker government. But that did not happen. There were flurries of time extensions, that dragged to the process of holding lottery after almost two years. Still, RAJUK failed to hold much sought-after in some categories. The agency is yet to announce the winners of 120 plots allotted in the category of the journalists.
RAJUK has also a bad name in returning applicants' earnest money. Newspaper reports say applicants who failed to qualify to getting plots, had to fight wait for years to get their earnest money back. Anybody approaching RAJUK premises has to confront a host of a 'middlemen' first who are there to mint money from him in exchange of getting back his earnest money. A sort of 'horrible' atmosphere prevails in RAJUK Bhaban.
Mismanagement in RAJUK has gone to such an extent that its official website is also under threat. Some months ago, a group of elite miscreants, by hacking the website of RAJUK chairman, 'distributed' Uttara and Purbachal plots among overseas Bangladeshi buyers. And in exchange, they have amassed million of dollars that have been paid in third country bank. How could the miscreants get into the chairman's most confidential website is a big question now. How could the deposited money be siphoned off through a third party account? RAJUK did not reply to this query.
During the military-backed caretaker government, there was a move to purge corrupt officials and employees of RAJUK. Some steps were taken up. But there was no tangible result. And now the same age-old scenarios have resurfaced again. The present government has to give a serious look into it.
...............................
szkhan@dhaka.net
PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina castigated the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) for its past negligence that led to the unplanned growth of the capital Dhaka city. She said this agency had allowed scores of buildings to be constructed without any plans, putting the city into a messy state.
While laying the foundation of a project to build apartments for lower and lower-middle income groups in Uttara last week, the Prime Minister said in the past RAJUK allowed construction of multi-storied buildings without looking into the condition of the utility services like water, gas, sewerage lines and electricity. She asked the RAJUK and other concerned authorities to make sure that the utility services were in place before giving any permission in the future.
Sheikh Hasina noted that it was a practice in the past to give permission illegally in exchange for money without considering the future consequences. 'This will no longer be acceptable,' she said. She directed the authorities concerned to consider environment and climate aspects before giving any kind of permission for high-rise buildings and housing plots.
Indeed, cases of irregularities against RAJUK are galore. Thousands of reports were published in the media concerning such irregularities. Last year, a parliamentary committee asked RAJUK authorities to prepare a list of persons who got allocation of plots and flats in the city during 2002 to 2008 through political influence cancelling previous allotments to others. The parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings also asked the agency to submit details about the government's tenure-wise irregularities that had taken since 1973 to until to date. The committee blasted the state real estate authorities for its financial anomalies including not keeping its audit reports. It also directed RAJUK authorities to take actions against those who have built houses and structures violating its building code.
Very recently, RAJUK has started door-to-door inspection of the countless number of high-rise buildings in the city to verify their legitimacy. According to reports, around 40 building inspectors from four different zones are studying the high rise buildings and their surrounding areas including the width of the adjacent streets, open spaces and parking facilities. Such detailed inspection is expected help the authorities to smoke out the bottlenecks and irregularities that exist in the system for future developments. Yet the question arises as to the honest nature of the high-rise study. It should be noted here that the same set of people were behind giving approval of these high-rise buildings. How can a neutral and fair judgement be expected from them?
According to the Building Construction Rules 1996, structures of six stories and above can be bracketed as high-rise buildings. The act also discloses that a 9-storey high-rise building would be permissible only if the adjacent street has a minimum width of 25 feet. However, the entire city is virtually swarming with buildings crossing the 6-storey mark in even the most cramped of areas. Majority of these buildings were either constructed without any authorisation from RAJUK or are in total violation of the proper construction rules. Although rules prohibit the construction of any high-rise building if the adjacent street lengths are below 25 feet, there are countless instances where the city has as high as 20 storied buildings adjacent to streets as narrow as 10 feet. Worst areas of this haphazard urbanisation include city areas like Dhanmondi, Jhigatola, Rayer Bazar, Green Road, Azimpur, Malibagh, Mogbazar, Rampura, Mirpur, Segunbagicha etc.
A survey conducted some years back suggests that there are around 4,376 buildings ranging from six to 22 storeys high in around 66 localities of the city. Although RAJUK officials have no idea on how many of these structures were built following proper construction rules, it is believed that almost 95 per cent of the buildings had deviated from the concerned rules. Anomalies behind faulty approval or non-approval of high-rise buildings include mainly political and destructive pressures and lobbying in connivance with a corrupt section of RAJUK officials. Corrupt practices at all the agencies concerned and finally at RAJUK, connivance and political pressures are what were applied for managing dubious approval of high-rise buildings. A large section of landowners, developers, engineers and architects are involved in the irregularities. RAJUK, the sole authority to approve building plans and to monitor construction, is riddled with corruption where anyone can get anything done through a team of highly influential and well-linked middlemen.
For approval of buildings above 6-storeys high, the developers have to seek clearances from 16 government agencies including Department of Environment, Civil Aviation, Fire services, WASA, DESA, DCC, CAAB and Titas Gas. However, according to a real estate developer who built a ten-storey structure in the capital city these clearances tend to be readily available through RAJUK middlemen for a hefty sum of money. It is an open secret that these papers are issued without any inspection or question asked by any authority. But for the sake of an approved plan, these need to be bought, said the developer.
During the fag end of the caretaker government, applications were invited for distributing 6000 plots in Purbachal and 800 plots in Uttara. Every time top brass of the RAJUK had faced the media said that the plots would be distributed during the tenure of the caretaker government. But that did not happen. There were flurries of time extensions, that dragged to the process of holding lottery after almost two years. Still, RAJUK failed to hold much sought-after in some categories. The agency is yet to announce the winners of 120 plots allotted in the category of the journalists.
RAJUK has also a bad name in returning applicants' earnest money. Newspaper reports say applicants who failed to qualify to getting plots, had to fight wait for years to get their earnest money back. Anybody approaching RAJUK premises has to confront a host of a 'middlemen' first who are there to mint money from him in exchange of getting back his earnest money. A sort of 'horrible' atmosphere prevails in RAJUK Bhaban.
Mismanagement in RAJUK has gone to such an extent that its official website is also under threat. Some months ago, a group of elite miscreants, by hacking the website of RAJUK chairman, 'distributed' Uttara and Purbachal plots among overseas Bangladeshi buyers. And in exchange, they have amassed million of dollars that have been paid in third country bank. How could the miscreants get into the chairman's most confidential website is a big question now. How could the deposited money be siphoned off through a third party account? RAJUK did not reply to this query.
During the military-backed caretaker government, there was a move to purge corrupt officials and employees of RAJUK. Some steps were taken up. But there was no tangible result. And now the same age-old scenarios have resurfaced again. The present government has to give a serious look into it.
...............................
szkhan@dhaka.net