& 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

Living with danger

Dwellers in highly vulnerable Shakhari Bazar buildings find themselves trapped in multiple inheritances, Vested Property Act, heritage law

PlNAKI ROYandMAHBUB MORSHED
A 55-year-old woman, who declines to be named, has been living in a century-old rickety building at Shakhari Bazar in old Dhaka for more than three decades.
The structure was in a better shape when she moved into it as a young bride. As years passed by, it got from bad to worse for lack of repair, and has become one of the most vulnerable buildings in the area.
Plasters had fallen off its worn-out walls long time back. Huge cracks have developed on the floor over the years.
Despite knowing the risk of living in such a tumbledown building, she had no choice but to live in the house on Pannitola Lane to raise her three children.
She told The Daily Star that she and her family members want to build a new structure dismantling the old
one. But the six inheritors of the building had failed to reach a consensus on it.
The other inheritors remained tight-lipped about the matter.
More than a hundred families like hers live in such vulnerable structures in Shakhari Bazar.
Many of them mentioned disagreement between inheritors as the main reason for failure to rebuild the old structure or construct new ones. In most cases, a single building has several owners while some are owned by as many as 50 people.
Some house owners referred to the Vested Property Act as the main obstacle to constructing new buildings demolishing the old ones.
“Our centuries-old building has six inheritors. T\velve families live in 24 tiny rooms of our three-storey building," said 48-year old Shib Charan Dhar, who trades in bangles in Shakhari Bazar.
“We all agreed to knock it down to build a new structure. But we were barred from doing that since the building had been listed as enemy property."
Many house owners in Shakhari Bazar are unable to build new structures because of the Vested Property Act, formerly Enemy Property Act, he said.
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) identified 32 houses as highly vulnerable and 91 as risky in Shakhari Bazar in 2009 after a huge chunk of plaster broke off the roof of Madan Mohan Mandir, one of the oldest ornamented buildings in the area, leaving three people injured.
In June 2004, 11 people were killed and several others injured when a century-old building came crashing down on them.
On recommendations from an expert committee, the government in 2008 had decided to declare Shakhari Bazar a heritage site where several hundred families live in 142 buildings on both sides of a 600-foot-long narrow alley.
Some house owners are accommodating to the idea, while many others strongly oppose it.
If Shakhari Bazar is made a heritage site, the house owners there will not be allowed to knock down any old structures or renovate them without government permission.
However, the government agencies concerned have not yet made any move to that end.
It will be really difficult for the house owners to renovate the centuries-old buildings, if the place is made a heritage site, said advocate Kishore Kumar Basu Pintu, who was born and brought up in Shakhari Bazar.
"We have not heard anything from government agencies about renovation of buildings in Shakhari Bazar," he said.
Officials of the Department of Archaeology said it could not take any initiative to conserve the site for fund constraints.
Historians say the 300-year-old quarter was built during the Mughal period for craftsmen, who make Shakha (bangles made of conch). The quarter was later expanded during the British rule.
Unplanned renovation over the years has diminished the aesthetic value of the buildings that boast a distinct architectural style.