& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Challenges from within

Influential people in government working against its plan to protect wetlands, implement DAP

PINAKI Roy and Helemul Alam
The government faces challenges from inside in implementing the Detail Area Plan of the capital as some bureaucrats, lawmakers and even an adviser to the premier try to incorporate flood flow zone as residential areas in the draft.
Influential land developers were flexing their muscles and pressurising the state minister for housing and public works and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha officials to relax the existing rules.
Some influential leaders of land developers' association even blasted the state minister over the draft DAP, which
reserves 21 percent land as water bodies where no development will be permitted.
The leaders came down heavily on the state minister in front of some newspersons at his ministry's conference room on June 13.
Besides, some ruling party lawmakers also lobbied for a quarter of land developers to change the rules or relax the existing ones, sources say.
Rajuk Chairman Md Nurul Huda said they received requests from different stakeholders as they feel they have been facing injustice and "following their prayers we submitted our explanations on it”.
"I did everything as far as rules are
concerned and we did nothing out of rules and will not do so," he said.
The government formed a six-member committee to review DAP which received at least four letters. The letters were earlier submitted to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works requesting to change the character of flood flow zone as unapproved housing projects located in some areas.
The Pratyasha Samabay Samity, a cooperative organisation of around 400 BCS (Administration) officials who built a housing project in Kakoli Sataish Mouja in Tongi, is located partly in flood flow zone. Md Wazed Ali Khan, president of Pratyasha Samabay Samity, issued a letter to the ministry to show the flood flow zone as flood free area in DAP
Another letter issued by HT Imam, adviser to the prime minister, made a request to consider the entire project named Probashi Palli in Pubail, Kliilgaon, Narayankul, Bindan, Samarsing and Ulukhola moujas in Gazipur as residential area in DAP
The area, however, is earmarked as partly high value agriculture and partly flood flow zone in structure plan, says a member of the review committee.
The DAP is one of the main components of 20-year-long (1995-2015) Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP), which is now approved. Other two components are Urban Area Plan and Structure Plan, which were gazettedin 1997.
According to DMDR DAP was scheduled to be completed within one year of formation of DMDR which was initiated in 1992, completed in 1995 and officially gazetted in 1997,saysa Rajukofficial.
Different locations including flood flow, retention area, roads and open space were earmarked as indicative ways in the Structure Plan. But DAP will specify every location in terms ofMouja and GIS survey, says an official of Rajuk.
Mohammad Mejbah UI Islam, chairman of Shotabdi Housing in Uttarkhan, requested to mark the project area as residential area in DAP The area has been earmarked as retention pond [where rain water stay for a certain time before receding! in draft DAP and flood flowzone.
Principal Md Mofizur Rahman Mirdah, president of Adarsha Shikkhak Bahumukhi Samabay Samity Ltd, requested to show the proposed project area in Uttar Kawndia Mouja as urban residential area. The area has been earmarked in draft DAI’ and in structure plan as flood flowzone, review committee sources say.
The ministry forwarded the requests for all the four projects and 12 housing projects to the review committee for its consent.
However, the six-member
review committee headed by lamilur Reza Chowdhury rejected all requests and recommended to keep up all the flood flowzones strictly in DAR
"We considered the flood flow zone as untouchable and unchangeable and suggested for strictly reserving the area as flood flow zone in DAR" said Joint Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan Iqbal Habib.
Responding to a question, Habib said more requests were coming from ministers and lawmakers to earmark flood flowzone as residential areas.
"If we want to make Dhaka free from flood, we must retain flood flow areas at any cost," Habib observed.