Ashiyan City's Uttara housing project illegal: HC

The High Court today declared illegal the housing project of Ashiyan City in Uttara of the capital.

A three-member HC bench declared the housing project at Halon and Ashkona illegal as Ashiyan City was implementing the scheme without any environment clearance certificate and grabbing lands of locals. 

The bench delivered the verdict by majority view in response to a writ petition filed by eight rights organisations.   

Justice AB Mahmudul Huq and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain declared the housing project illegal while another member, Quzi Reza-Ul Hoque, termed the project as valid.

On which observations and grounds the bench delivered the verdict could not known immediately as its full text was not published today.

Petitioners' counsel Iqbal Kabir Lytton told The Daily Star that Ashiyan City cannot continue with the housing project following the HC verdict.

However, the housing company has already stopped its activities including filling of land, advertisement and selling plots following a stay imposed by the HC in January 2013, Lytton said.

In the writ petition, the eight rights organisations said Ashiyan City authorities had been filling and constructing structures on around 230 acres of land even though the company had Rajuk permission for development on only 43 acres.

Ashiyan City grabbed land of locals for the projects violating wetland conservation and other relevant laws and the High Court's earlier directives, the petitioners claimed.

On January 2 last year, the HC asked Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) to stop activities of Ashiyan City which had a conditional and partial approval from the housing ministry to develop land in Holan and Ashkona.

Ashiyan City is one of 78 private housing projects in and around Dhaka city which were declared illegal by another High Court bench in June, 2011.

In December, 2011, the court banned publishing of advertisements of any unauthorised housing projects in the print and electronic media.