This road near Malibagh intersection is in a state of dilapidation with muddy patches everywhere, but no effective step is in sight to repair it soon. The photo was snapped on Tuesday. sun photo As if there is nothing like civic amenities in the capital. Roads have collapsed, condition of lanes and by-lanes is bad and dirty waste is spilling over the cover of the manhole. There is no end to the sufferings of the people in movement in the city. For two consecutive terms Dhaka has been adjudged as the second unliveable city in the world. So long there was a scope to speak to the people representatives about the problems, but now there is no such opportunity to place the grievance to the unelected bureaucrats. Experts said the main reason for the collapse of citizen services is that the authority is not in the hands of elected representatives. For long the two city corporations of Dhaka have been run by administrators. The administrators of Dhaka North and South City Corporations are blaming rainy season for catastrophic consequence of the roads. They think the situation will improve after the monsoon is over. Jahangir Alam, chief engineer of DCC South, said “The condition of roads usually becomes bad during the monsoon. We repair the roads after the end of rainy season. But the responsibility of repairing roads in the flyover areas rests upon the construction company. We hope they will do that.” Md Ahsan Ullah, former acting mayor of the DCC and 6-no ward councilor, differed with the above view. He said service of DCC has fallen apart after its split into two parts. Apart from splitting the DCC into two parts, unelected administrators have been appointed to run those. As the administrators are not accountable to the people, they are doing whatever they wish. For not having councilors in the wards, people are being deprived of development activities and services. Even, the aggrieved people do not have scope to register complaint. It is learnt that the little construction works undertaken by bureaucratic administrators are not being sustainable due to use of spurious materials in it. Besides, illegal parking of vehicles, atrocities of CNG stations and occupation of footpath are causing serious gridlock in the capital. It takes more than two hours to cross the distance of half an hour. If the areas are visited, heterogeneous sufferings of the people will be seen. A road connecting to five-storey market in Badda is virtually non-existent. The materials like bricks, sands, pitch and asphalts faded away much earlier. The hollows created in the roads look like small khal at the time of water logging. And local people have put bamboo with red cloths to mark the coverless manhole. The area has fallen within the Dhaka North City Corporation. A local resident Mohammad Halim Sikder told Kaler Kantho, “There is no cover on any manhole on this road. We have gone to regional office many times to demand placing of cover on the manholes. But we could not even meet any body.” Halim Sikder further said, “Even if the ward commissioner is bad, we could have at least met him. He used to listen to our problems. It also gave some results. But now there is no such way.” The residents of Rampura DIT residential area are also plunged in similar sufferings. After the opening of Hatir Jheel there is constant traffic jam inside this residential area. Dhaka south city corporation did not install any cover on the manholes in the area during the last three years. Roads are full of potholes. It is difficult to move on foot also. Everyday the lanes and by-lanes of this area are overcrowded with thousands of vehicles of Hatir Jheel. Taken all combined the area has now become a hell; but nobody is there to look into it. Mamun Abdullah, a resident of Rampura DIT residential area, said the roads are in dilapidated condition for last three years, with no cover on the manholes. But the city corporation is silent. They also did not spray insecticide. Abdullah blames the bureaucrat-run city corporation for all these. An on-the-spot visit shows acute public sufferings in getting various certificates relating to citizen, birth, succession and death. The same problem they have to face during photo attestation. Sometimes, people having genuine certificates fall in awkward situation due to fake certificates being issued by a section of DCC officials. Abdul Halim, a resident of Mirpur section-6, was in trouble at the time of mutation of a house inherited by him from his father. Former ward councilor Ahsanullah Hasan issued a certificate showing him to be successor of the land. A fake certificate issued by regional office-2 of DCC North had been submitted to the office before he submitted his document. Later, Halim persuaded the fake certificate issuing officer to solve the problem but in vain. It is learnt that like certificates many people have been depending on middleman for getting emergency service. In some cases middlemen are selling fraudulent certificates in exchange for huge money to the commoners. Although no road of the capital has increased for vehicular movement despite construction of flyovers. Moreover pedestrians are also using main roads as most of the footpaths remain occupied. As a result vehicle-plying areas are narrowing down. Everyday people in the city are facing traffic congestion. According to the information of the road transport department, Tk 20,000 crore has been misused in the name of fuel cost in every year due to traffic congestion. But presently the cost may increase more, sources concerned said. Occupying footpaths is not the main cause for narrowing down road but illegal parking also the cause for traffic jam. In some areas Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has given permission for car parking facilities on the road. While visiting the city’s New Market, Karwan Bazaar, Mohakhali, Elephnat Road, Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Gulistan areas it was found that most of the cars were being parked in those areas. People involved with the incident claimed that they arranged the parking facilities by getting lease from the DCC. Most of the high-rise buildings of the city have no parking facilities. Their cars are parked on the road. It was also found that a long traffic jam has been created in the city’s Gulshan-1 to Gulshan-2 main road due to illegal parking. On the other hand the main causes for traffic jams in the city’s Dhanmondi area is gathering of huge private cars in front of different educational institutions. Most of the drivers of the private cars use to park their vehicles haphazardly beside road. Sufferers demanded that the main cause for traffic jam in the capital is unplanned CNG stations. This picture is same in the city’s Kamalapur Rail Station, Badda, Mohakhali, Mirpur, Tejgaon, Gabtoli areas. Sometimes the traffic jam was spread over two kilometers from one kilometer. For formulating city planning Dhaka City Corporation has a department named City Planning Division. But for the last one decade the authority concerned did not take any initiative for formulating planning about roads and highways of the capital. Sirajul Islam, Chief Urban Planner of DCC (South) told Kaler Kontho, “It is our duty to ensure service to the city dwellers. But Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipokkya (RAJUK) has been assigned to make master plan of the city road. So we cannot keep our due role.” City people has been alleging for long time piling up of wastes on roads. It is learnt that on average about 4500 tonnes wastes are produced in the capital everyday. The huge wastes are dumped on the road. DCC has no initiative to remove the wastes, city people claimed. About the matter, Captain Bipon Kumar Saha, Chief Waste Management Officer of DCC (North) said, “We are trying our best to clean wastes from the road side everyday. But in some cases we could not do this.” The undivided Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) witnessed its last election in April 2002 while its tenure was completed in May of 2007. The then Election Commission took initiative to hold election TWICE but election was halted due to legal complications. On November 30, 2011 the DCC was divided into two parts as South City Corporation got 56 wards while North City Corporation got 36 wards. In the next year, the Election Commission declared election schedule for two City Corporations but election time also was halted due to legal complications. As per the declared schedule, the election was supposed to be held in two City Corporations on May 24, 2012. In May 2013, the Election Commission took fresh initiative for declaring election schedule when the court stay order withdrew. But the election was again stopped over the complication of the boundary of a new ward added with Dhaka South City Corporation. After that different task including road repair and modernisation, mosquito prevention, installation of street lamps and other development works were hampered. Regarding this, Dhaka North City Corporation chief executive BM Enamul Haque said, “It is true that the roads of the capital are bad to some extent. But the mosquito prevention and other activities are running properly. Two of our magistrates are regularly conducting eviction drives to prevent illegal occupation in the streets. If one side is freed from illegal occupation, the other side is occupied and thus the positive result of eviction is hardly found. We are trying our best to ensure the civic amenities.” So far, three budgets have been declared after dividing the DCC into two parts. The budget for two corporations are not insufficient compared to previous time. But the City Corporations lag behind in terms of their development works than the past times. It is learnt that in the fiscal year of 2014-15, a total of Tk 2,041.87 crore has been declared in the proposed budget for Dhaka North City Corporation. The administrator of the corporation Md Faruk Zalil declared this budget. At the same time, the administrator of Dhaka South City Corporation Md Ibrahim Hossain Khan declared a total of Tk 1,565.75 crore as the budget. There is no initiative for providing services though adequate budgets are allocated for the twin corporations. Courtesy: Kaler Kantho
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