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DAP gets nod

PM fully backs recovery of grabbed rivers or lands; asks not to bow down to encroachers' pressure

Hasan Jahid Tusher
The cabinet yesterday directed the authorities concerned to quickly implement the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for Dhaka Metropolitan City that aims at sustainable environment, and provides a guideline forurban development.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who chaired a cabinet meeting yesterday, assigned seven ministries to implement DAP through building favourable public opinion, and holding inter-ministerial meetings. The ministries are of housing, land, communication, local government and rural development, water resources, shipping, and environment.
The cabinet also instructed the authorities to issue a gazette notification to protect all water bodies of the capital including rivers. The decision came at a time when a section of powerful real estate developers, some of whom are also widely known as land grabbers, are opposing DAP on the plea that its implementation will mean demolition of many structures in the city.
At the meeting, Hasina directed the housing ministry and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to save low-lying lands, wetlands, water bodies, canals, rivers, and agricultural lands from land grabbers at any cost.
"No concession will be made to anyone in this regard," the prime minister was quoted as saying, by her Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, who was briefing the media in Press Information Department's conference room in Bangladesh Secretariat after the meeting.
Meeting sources said the premier strongly emphasised on recovering all parts of rivers, canals, and wetlands grabbed by influential quarters. She directed her cabinet colleagues and others at the meeting not to bow down to pressure from any influential quarter in this regard.
The PM also instructed Rajuk to recover government properties and houses that have been grabbed over the years through forgeryorforce.
LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said to ensure smooth implementation of DAR different ministries should have active participation, and the government should create public opinion for the plan.
One of the prime minister's advisers criticised the role of Rajuk Echoing what some real estate developers recently told the housing minister at a heated meeting over DAR the adviser told the cabinet that Rajuk itself violated rules by developing
different housing projects through filling up wetlands. The government should ensure transparency in Rajuk, he said.
The same adviser had recently advocated for marking some low-lying risky areas as "residential", favouring some land developers.
Hasina, at the meeting, emphasised on seeking public opinion about DAR the same way it was sought for the country's education policy. The contents of the plan should be available on Rajuk's website, so anyone may see what it contains, and may give his or her opinion on it, she said.
She also emphasised on finding a quick solution to the perennial traffic jam in the capital.
Meeting sources said a minister complained that Rajuk in the past allowed commercial enterprises in residential areas, prompting deterioration of living environment. The practice should stop, he said adding that each area should be allowed to retain its character fromnowon.
State Minister for Housing Abdul Mannan Khan, who was present at the meeting, told the media later that he is firmly determined to begin implementation of DAP within two to three months. "We will take public opinion on the issue first,"he said.
"The Detailed Area Plan is not something that was made to protect any individual's personalinterest. Itwaspreparedto save Dhaka and its people," he added.
"If we fail to implement the plan, Dhaka will gradually go underwater," the state minister warned.
Seeking cooperation of all including landowners, land developers, and the developers' association Rehab, he said, " Let’s not endanger Dhaka."