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Who cares for the condemnations, really?

Shahnoor Wahid
CONDEMNATIONS are pouring in from all saner quarters on the issue of effusive misdemeanour of the president of Bangladesh Land Developers' Association (BLDA) at a high level meeting with the state minister for public works the other day. The histrionics of the BLDA president, that bordered on audacity, had been in full public view thanks to the electronic media present at the time.
The person in question not only raised his voice to an unacceptable pitch, but also resorted to gestures that were unseemly. It was only just and proper for the minister to intervene
sternly to remind the person where he was sitting at that moment and how he should behave in such meetings.
The airing of the news was indeed the best example of the people's right to know about what goes on in government meetings. No doubt, RTI would be best practiced if the proceedings of all such meetings were shown to the people of the Republic. The TV footage angered people coming from various backgrounds, and many of them felt that the government should allow no space to the land and water body grabbers.
Some senior environmentalists and professionals from well-known organisations like Bapa, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association,
Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Institute of Architects, Bangladesh, and Centre for Urban Studies have expressed their dismay and disbelief at the level of un-professionalism showed by the person concerned at the meeting where highly respected professionals and experts were present.
The group of professionals led by Prof. Muzaffer Ahmad protested the confusing statements about Detailed Area Plan (DAP), saying that some powerful quarters were opposing the DAP despite the fact that the government wanted to see it implemented for the greater interest of the residents of Dhaka city. DAP for Dhaka city was drafted by some advisory institutes, and it had gone to the review committee for examination. The plan was designed to keep the city free from floods and to make it livable.
But Prof. Muzaffer rightly pointed out that Dhaka city had become uninhabitable because of erratic construction of buildings and encroachment on lakes and water bodies. We note with concern that another powerful body of profes-
sionals, Technology Alumni Association (Buetaa) also condemned the objectionable behaviour of the BLDA president on that day. The members of the association said they were shocked by the behaviour of BLDA president at the meeting that was attended by the state minister, DAP review committee members and some civil society members.
Buetaa went further to say that such attitude of the BLDA representatives is tantamount to threatening the safety of the flood flow zone of the capital city.
They could not have gone closer to the truth. In fact, the damage had already been done to Dhaka city by some greedy developers when they indiscriminately grabbed low-lying areas and filled those up to construct residential and commercial quarters. The resulting horror becomes too obvious when the city centre gets flooded after a little rainfall.
The civil society and various professional groups have been crying hoarse to draw the attention of the successive governments but no one cared to listen, as vested quarters spread around millions to keep mouths shut. As a result, the safety and interest of the 1 crore plus residents were sacrificed for the interest of a dozen businessmen.
The truth is, when businessmen come close to the political power of the day they often forget their own past and begin to behave like the cruel kings of yesteryears. As they start to get invited to state functions and come closer to the media microphones they start to talk incoherently. When their own disbelief at the elevation in society reaches the stage of delusion, they forget the norms and civility that they must adhere to in life. To put them in place, the government should be more assertive.
We can only join in with Prof. Muzaffar and others when they say that the interest of the residents of Dhaka city cannot be ignored just for the sake of the interest of a few people. But, whatever is being said now or whatever has been said for the last twenty years or so, the nexus of unscrupulous politicians, businessmen and government officials has been recklessly destroying Dhaka for their selfish interest. We are not sure what will happen this time around.
Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star. He can be contacted at shahnoorwahid ©yahoo.co.uk