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Indian visa office at Banani to end peaceful living

Say residents

Staff Correspondent
Local residents yesterday said relocation of Indian visa office to Banani would destroy residential character of the area and deprive them of a peaceful life.
They said this at a press conference organised by Banani Society at the National Press Club in the city.
State Bank of India that operates the visa processing is planning to transfer the visa office from the residential area of Gulshan section-1 to Banani Block-F at house-98/A of Road No 7.
General Secretary of the society Shah Abul Kqhsem said the visa office, where hundreds of applicants crowd every day, will turn the core residential neighbourhood into a market place with round-the-clock public chaos, traffic conges-tion and unwanted elements.
Banani residential area is already spoilt by various unauthorised commercialisation, he said, adding that the locals appealed to the authori-
ties, including Indian High Commission, not to set up the visa office in the area.
Kashem further said that the situation around visa office in Gulshan at present is already exactly the same as apprehended with long queue of visa applicants, brokers and traffic congestion.
Hundreds of brokers and visa seekers stand in queues for hours, block pedestrian passage, litter at will and respond to the call of nature openly on the sidewalks and drains, he added.
He said the society has
already contacted the foreign ministry, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and State Bank of India to stop the move.
"Though a residential building cannot be used for non-residential purposes without due permission, Rajuk has not yet taken any action in this regard," said Kahsem.
Rajuk has so far not taken action against other unauthorised commercial uses of the residential neighbourhood, he said, adding that the high commission owns a two-bigha
plot near the US embassy at Baridhara where it can set up it offices.
The locals said that most of those owners who rent out their buildings for big commercial and business uses here live abroad.
Several lakh Bangladeshis travel to India every year on medical, education and other purposes.
Banani Ladies Society advisor Momena Ali, Joint Secretary of Banani Society Md Moniruzzaman and former ambassador Abdus Salam also took part.