Staff Correspondent
Housing and public works minister Mosharraf Hossain on Sunday said that sometimes it seemed to him that the land grabbers were more powerful than the government.
Replying to questions at a ‘Meet the Reporters’ programme organised by Dhaka Reporters’ Unity at its auditorium, he also said that the government agencies, especially the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha, had failed to protect the rivers surrounding the capital and other wetlands from the grabbers and pollutions.
He admitted that the officials of the government agencies engaged to enforce the laws were also involved in corruption widening scope for grabbing as well as unplanned development in and around the capital.
‘Grabbing and pollutions should be stopped immediately,’ Mosharraf said, stressing the need for the framing of a strong policy.
He urged all concerned to ensure the use of sand cement blocks instead of bricks and said that the government was going to make it mandatory in the building code to protect croplands and environment pollution from the brick kilns.
The minister blamed the failure of the urban planners for unplanned development of the capital, alleging that they failed to forecast the growth of Dhaka city. As an example, he said that the urban planners had selected Tejgaon as an industrial area at the outside of the capital but the area now became the centre of the city.
Dhaka Reporters’ Unity president Saiful Islam presided over the programme where its general secretary Syed Sukkur Ali Shuvo, among others, was present.
He blamed government agencies concerned for the failure to ensure proper management of solid and liquid wastes which caused river pollution and environmental degradation in the capital. Replying to another query, the minister said that they were planning new residential areas in the city having independent sewerage management, solid waste management and the other services.
- Courtesy: New Age/Jan 22, 2018
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