Commercial entities in residential areas Authorities turn a blind eye [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Commercial entities in residential areas Authorities turn a blind eye

Local February 19, 2017

At least 3,301 unauthorised business entities, including restaurants, hotels, bars, clinics and educational institutions, continue running their activities in residential buildings, mostly at Dhanmondi, Gulashan, Baridhara, Banani and Uttara, in Dhaka, posing a threat to public security.
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha identified 3,375 unauthorised business entities in residential buildings but evicted only 74 in the past one year.
Centre for Urban Studies chairman Nazrul Islam said that definitely there would be security threat to the dwellers if residential areas or buildings were used for commercial purposes because of frequent movement of unknown people.
He said that there should be neighbourhood shopping centre in a planned residential area to meet the need of the dwellers.
Nazrul blamed Rajuk for remaining silent when illegal commercial establishments and structures bloomed in the residential areas.
The town planning body of the capital failed to evict or stop the unauthorised commercial activities in the residential buildings in Dhaka despite decisions made by the government and Supreme Court orders.
The government decided to evict all commercial entities from diplomatic zones and residential areas on security grounds after the July 1 extremist attack on Holey Artisan Bakery at Gulshan that left 29 people, including 17 foreigners, killed.
The housing ministry on July 17, 2016 asked Rajuk to evict commercial entities from residential areas or buildings.
Following the order, Rajuk set a 21-day crash programme from July 24 to August 31 to evict commercial establishments from the residential buildings.
The Appellate Division on August 1, 2016 upheld a High Court verdict pronounced on June 11, 2012 that had ordered removal of all commercial establishments from Dhanmandi residential area.
In the past one year, Rajuk evicted, or stopped the operation of, only 74 business entities in different residential areas in Dhaka, its latest data shows.
According to officials at Rajuk’s development control wing, most of the evicted business entities reopened their businesses in the same residential buildings in absence of follow-up drives.
They said that Rajuk had notified the owners of the business entities in residential buildings to wind up their businesses but a few of them complied with the notices.
Rajuk started the eviction drives from January 18, 2016 to execute a decision made by an inter-ministerial meeting on November 22, 2015.
The cabinet in a meeting on April 4, 2016 asked all the owners to relocate their business establishments from the residential buildings in six months.
The meeting also asked the authorities to launch coordinated drives to evict the illegal business establishments and disconnect utility services in case of failure to meet the deadline.
Rajuk primarily identified 552 unauthorised commercial establishments including hotels, restaurants, bars, schools, colleges, universities and hospitals in diplomatic zones, Rajuk officials said, adding that 3,375 unauthorised business entities, including restaurants, hotels, bars, clinics and educational institutions, running their activities in residential buildings, mostly at Dhanmondi, Gulashan, Baridhara, Banani and Uttara, in Dhaka were identified.
Rajuk chairman M Bazlul Karim Chaudhury admitted that their achievement in evicting the illegal commercial entities from the residential buildings was negligible.
He, however, said that they continued the drives against the illegal commercial establishments housed in residential buildings but it was not possible to execute the tasks in a short time.