The Dhanmondi Paribesh Unnayan Jote (DPUJ) organised the seminar titled 'City Planning and Human Rights', which was held at the Jatiya Press Club on May 13.

The seminar observed that many residential areas of the capital had been radically transformed. Citing Dhanmondi, as an example, they said that the area had lost its appeal of being known as a friendly neighbourhood and became instead a 'mixed use' zone in 1995. The definition of a mixed use zone is it provides some commercial usage of residential neighbourhoods.

The commercial users are intended to support daily and weekly commercial service needs of the neighbourhood, conserve energy by reducing automobile dependency and enable more diverse neighbourhoods that optimise the use of both land and available urban services and facilities.

Speakers also said that there were regulations, which protected citizens from arbitrary and top-down development. The 1953 Town Improvement Act requires that whenever any improvement scheme or re-housing scheme has been framed, Rajuk is obligated to publish its details.

The boundaries of the area under such scheme should be published periodically for at least three weeks in the official gazette and in the local newspapers, with a statement of the period within which objections will be received.

Dr Nazrul Islam, chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies presided over the seminar which was addressed by architect Firozeuddin Ahmed of Institute of Architect Bangladesh (IAB), Hamida Hossain of Ain o Shalish Kendra (ASK), Salma Shafi of Sheltech Consultants, Mobasshar Ali of IAB, Rajuk Town planner Zahurul Haq, Shawkat Ali Khan, the planner of Dhaka Master Plan, Sultana Alam the convenor of DPUJ, and Mihir Biswas of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA).

Firozeuddin said that community planning was essential if Dhaka was going to be properly developed into a modern metropolis.

Salma Shafi in her paper argued that Dhaka's detail plan ought to incorporate integrated planning for all classes of citizens.

Hamida Hossain believed that the government was evicting slum dwellers without rehabilitating them. "We need to depend on them for street cleaning, household chores," she said.