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Rajuk goes tough on outdoor ad menace

KAuSAR ISLAM AYON
Rajuk has moved to knock down rooftop billboards, signboards and transmitting towers to cut vision pollution and restore beauty to the city.
In a recent notice, Rajuk declared all rooftop installations illegal and set August 30 as the deadline for homeowners to remove their structures.
"The Building Construction Law of 1953 makes such outdoor advertisements and towers illegal. They are risky as the buildings that house these structures were not designed to bear the extra load and they also destroy the beauty of surroundings," said Emdadul Islam, chief engineer with the city developer.
"We have to act tough against the homeowners who don't comply with the order," he said, adding the authorities would not allow the advertisement menace to creep back in.
Rajuk did not go unchallenged. Rafiqul Islam, president of Bangladesh Outdoor Owners Association (BOOA), questioned the rationale for the decision and said: "If such signboards are illegal under the 1953 law, how did the authorities allow us to build them for
the last 33 years?"
"We have put a lot of money into the business." He said Rajuk should have talked to his organisation and considered its views too before taking the decision.
The drive came as Dhaka City Corporation started demolishing unregistered outdoor advertisements on August 1, before its efforts tapered off in a space of five days. The DCC will meet on August 21 to follow it up.
Rajuk's decision surprised the homeowners who have just rented or leased out space to advertisers.
"We cannot just ask them to bring down the structures by August 30. We have to allow them at least three months to terminate contracts," said Golam Murtoza, owner of a high-rise in New Eskaton.
Cellphone companies have set up their signal towers on the roofs of high-rises. Nagar Bhaban has leased out space to a cellphone firm to build a tower that still stands. DCC officials said they would talk to the lessees of their roof soon and ask them to bring the tower down.
Rajuk's decision caught the cellphone companies off guard. "We should have been given alternative
locations. It is not easy to relocate in a month as installations require a lot of technicalities," said an official with a cellphone company. "We have to talk to the decision makers," he said.
Rajuk officials said they would reconsider the locations of the cellphone towers.
"If our team finds that a building can take the load our team the towers from such spots will not be brought down, and the others will have to be relocated in places that can hold the load," the chief engineer said.
The DCC received about 500 applications for registration. "We are scrutinising the applications and will limit outdoor advertisements as much as possible to bring beauty back to the city," said Abu Taleb, chief estate officer at the DCC.
BOOA complained that the DCC and Rajuk have kept their efforts opaque to favour only two ad agencies.
"These two firms are new to the business and trying to grab as much space as they possibly can. The place where the DCC pulled down our billboards will be given to the new companies," a BOOA member alleged.