Waited for the right time!

Pedestrians used to face difficulty while walking on the footpath of Indira Road and the one adjacent to busy Farmgate intersection in the capital, as the walkways were always crammed with street vendors.

And women were the worst sufferers as they hardly managed to navigate their way through the encroached footpaths. 

However, the authorities concerned have freed the walkways, paving the way for the pedestrians to walk on the footpaths without any impediment. But the clearing drive raises eyebrows as it has been conducted at a time when the eight-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) is going on in the capital.

Sharmin Shila, a commuter from Mirpur, said, “I barely found the footpaths and adjoining road passable, as they were swarming with makeshift kitchen shops and countless vendors blocking pedestrians' movement.”

Though she appreciated the move to clear the footpaths from illegal occupation, she asked why the authorities could not keep the road free always.   

SM Ajiur Rahman, a zonal executive officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, said they along with the police had cleared the road on the eve of ongoing CPC.

Dhaka is hosting the 63rd annual CPC on November 1-8 with over 500 parliamentarians, parliamentary staff and decision makers from across the Commonwealth taking part in it.

The DNCC official said they had to evict some of the encroachers while the rest moved away voluntarily.   

They will "keep the road and footpaths free from occupation", he said. 

In a similar drive, the authorities freed the road and footpaths during the 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Dhaka in April.