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DCC's bizarre marketing plans

SULTANA RAHMAN
***The Dhaka City Corporation has come up with a plan to demolish seven kitchen markets in the city and build multi-storied shopping centers without regard to thousands of established traders and the local residents***
The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) is now planning to demolish seven major kitchen markets in the city and replace them with 'modern multi-storied markets', sources in the Nagar Bhaban said.
Initially the DCC is thinking of declaring these markets 'abandoned' on the ground that these are structurally dangerous buildings, said DCC sources. At the moment DCC does not have any plan about what would happen to hundreds of shopkeepers during the time of construction of the new buildings. They also do not have any plan whatsoever how the local residents, thousands of whom depend on these markets for daily necessities, would do their shopping.
But officials and shop owners, currently doing business on these premises alleged that these structures were not in fact vulnerable to collapse but the whole project was nothing but a ploy to "make some quick money".
The listed markets are Gulshan-1, Mohammadpur Town Hall Market, Sadarghat Ladies Super Market, Sutrapur Market, Kaptan Bazar roadside market and Shah Ali market in Mirpur.
Engineering division of DCC Market Circle has already sent a notice to the chief of engineering department to declare these markets 'abandoned'. The engineering section has also been asked to demolish the structures.
"All these markets were built in the 60s by then DIT. Now they are in bad shape," said a DCC official.
DCC owns 105 markets including 36 supermarkets in the city. Most of these so-called super markets were built without any planning or approval from any authority over the last decade. According to an investigation, DCC does not have any control on rent collection from at least twelve of these super markets.
Sources said every month DCC is deprived of a revenue of Tk 7 lakh from these markets. At present, about 50 court injunctions have prevented the DCC to collect rents from these markets. Some of these injunctions have remained in force since 1984.
"We do not understand why DCC is more interested to build more markets while they are unable to collect revenue from many of the existing markets," said a member of the New Market committee. He said that the intention was clear, which is to "make money" at the cost of "our sweat", he said requesting anonymity.
"All these are happening due to lack of sincerity among DCC officials of three separate departments," said a DCC official.
"It is true that DCC owned markets are less modern compared to private markets. If the DCC wants to modernize these markets they should first ensure public convenience without favouring any individual or power," said a official of market division.