National Building Code: Disregarded all along
Despite tragic loss of lives and properties in repeated building disasters, the country’s national building code has been lying largely unimplemented for 26 years, getting obsolete in the absence of an enforcement authority, said leading professionals.
No let-up in river grabbing
The country’s rivers and canals in sixty districts are in distress with at least 45,148 grabbers identified, according to official lists so far prepared by the respective deputy commissioners and submitted to the National River Conservation Commission.
Authorities’ inaction put rivers in peril
The deplorable conditions of the rivers around Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country due to encroachment and pollution are the result of inaction of the river custodians and their complicity with the grabbers for decades, National River Conservation Commission Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader has said.
Holding Rajuk Accountable: Ministry failed to play its part
Repeated tragic deaths and loss of property in fire and building disasters in the capital could have been averted had the housing and public works ministry as the administrative authority held Rajuk duly accountable for its job, said serving and former top officials.
River grabbing a criminal offence
All river grabbing and pollution are criminal offences, the highest court in the country has declared in the full text of a landmark judgment.
City traffic in disorder
The metro rail construction work on 8km of the capital’s key thoroughfares has made the chaotic traffic even worse, largely because steps have not been taken for better use of the narrowed down streets, experts and officials said.
Meghna grabber defies govt order
A private dockyard company has been building two slipways in the Meghna river in Munshiganj’s Gazaria even after the National River Commission asked the firm to stop its work and free the river.
Freeing the Meghna from Grabbers: Act or get sued
The National River Conservation Commission has warned that it would take legal actions against at least a dozen government authorities for their inaction to free the Meghna from grabbers if they do not act within seven days.
Ship-builder eating away Meghna
In an onslaught on the Meghna, a private ship-building company is constructing its shipyard’s slipways into the river at Meghnaghat in Sonargaon, but the river custodians are doing little to stop it.
All in scary conditions
Building and fire safety conditions in all the 1,818 high rises under Rajuk’s jurisdiction are scary, its chairman Md Abdur Rahman said yesterday.