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Leash on road diggers soon

JULHAS RIPON
The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has decided to impose a ban on city road digging by utility service providers without prior approval of the mayor, official sources said yesterday.
A policy with the provision of penalty for the embargo-breakers is being worked out, they added.
The Ministry of Environment and Forest is also planning to get a legisla-
tion passed to check indiscriminate road digging.
The ministry is preparing a draft of the law and expecting to introduce it in the next session of the Jatiya Sangsad.
The moves came in view of 'perennial digging' of avenues, streets, lanes and by-lanes by a raft of utility service providers throughout the year causing sufferings to people.
At present rules are there to take
prior approval of the DCC for excavation of city roads, but they lack the provision for penalty, a DCC official said.
Under the penalty rules in the making, utility service providers have to complete their work within the stipulated time or count compensation money.
Currently, the WASA is installing
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sewers in at least 15 roads in the city causing serious inconvenience to the people, some sources said.
Referring to WASA's year-long digging of the Green Road, they alleged that utility service providers often do not complete their task by the DCC stipulated time.
DCC officials said if digging of the rickety city roads ran rampant, it would further add to people's sufferings, especially during the upcoming monsoon.
The DCC has already issued a special notice asking a range of organisations including Rajuk, WASA, Telegraph and Telephone Board and Titas Gas not to dig 92 important roads without prior approval of the mayor.
"Without mayoral approval, these organisations will not be able to conduct road digging as it is a matter of public interest," said a DCC official.
The notice urged the chief executives of authorities concerned to hold formal meetings with the mayor before unveiling plans for road digging and discuss different aspects of such projects including the plight of people, cost-effectiveness and importance of roads.
The DCC move came as the city began to experience first summer
rains.
Later in the season and into the monsoon, the sufferings of people would compound due to deplorable road conditions, sources said.
The move is likely to ensure sustainability of roadworks, DCC officials said, adding it would alert different utility service providers who left roads after completing their parts of installation work with earth and construction materials strewn allover.
They alleged that sometimes the organisations do not even inform the DCC of the state of the roads when they leave behind.
As they have developed an attitude of ignoring people's inconvenience, they do not even bother to install pipeline or sewers cutting roads repaired only seven days ago, they further alleged.
City mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka told The Daily Star that his plan was to establish co-ordination among different departments to ensure sustainability of uplift activities.
"Basically I want to discourage unnecessary digging of roads during rainy season. I have no intention to embarrass anybody, rather I want to work with the common agenda of improving city infrastructure," Khoka added.