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Some realtors fleecing customers

Housing minister says; real estate fair begins in Dhaka
Star Business Report
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Realtors should carry out businesses with integrity and without fleecing customers, said SM Rezaul Karim, housing and public works minister, yesterday.
“I want the realtors to make money by doing business maintaining ethics and integrity,” he said, while addressing the opening session of a five-day housing fair.
The Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) has organised the winter edition of the event at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
The minister alleged that some dishonest developers are fleecing the people through colourful ads in newspapers and billboards, asking them to stop the ill-practices.
He urged realtors to avoid unhealthy competition between themselves and advised the REHAB to raise awareness among customers about the vested quarter of developers.
REHAB President Alamgir Shamsul Alamin said the government should utilise the expertise of realtors by involving them in public infrastructure projects. He also urged the government to complete the procedure to reduce apartment registration fee as soon as possible.
The housing minister assured realtors of bringing changes to government policies so that they can participate in public tenders even if they don’t have required experience.
The minister warned land officials who are already involved in corruption or thinking to commit irregularities, asking them to leave the job.
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‘’We have issued a notice to land offices ordering them to provide necessary services to the public within a stipulated time in order to cut the scope for graft.’’
Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan, first vice-president of the association, said the housing sector is directly linked with more than 250 sectors. If the housing sector improves, other sectors will also advance with it.
Co-sponsored by 27 realtors, the fair is featuring 230 stalls and the participants included 20 building material manufacturers and 13 financial institutions.

Burial plots for Tk 3.5 lakh
Star Business Report
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Rawdatul Jannah, a concern of MIS Holdings, is offering permanent burial plots at the ongoing REHAB fair, as the developer looks to solve the capital’s graveyard crisis arising out of exponential population growth.
Dhaka, a city of 16 million, has only eight public graveyards -- too few to cope with demand. Since 2008, city corporation officials have stopped allocating permanent graves, while a semi-permanent one, which can last about two years, can cost upwards of Tk 1.50 lakh.
“Every day, 300 people die on average in Dhaka city, but there is not permanent resting space,” said Showayeb Hossain, managing director of Rawdatul Jannah.
The company is offering a 3.5 by 7 feet plot for burial at Panjora mouza of Kaliganj, Gazipur, which is a 25-minute drive from Kuril flyover, for Tk 3.5 lakh. There will be an additional Tk 20,000 service charge.
The private graveyard is built on 200 bighas, enough for 80,000 graves. Besides the graves, there will be a mosque, a madrasa, an orphanage, an old home and a child care centre, where all the modern facilities will be available.
“The plot owner will benefit from these installations in the form of “Sadquiya Jariya” after their death,” Hossain said.
Besides, the customers will get all burial solution at free of cost.
There will also be a provision for mortuary to preserve bodies if needed and freezer van to transport the bodies from the desired pick-up point. The entire complex will remain under CCTV surveillance round-the-clock.
Registration will be completed within 24 hours of purchasing the plot, he said.
Thus far, two have been buried at the graveyard.
The five-day fair, organised by the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), began at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka yesterday.
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