DSCC takes on years of ‘organised’ malpractice

Around 4,200 shops in 18 markets of Dhaka South City Corporation have been running illegally for years, depriving DSCC a good amount of revenue.

Some former DSCC officials along with a section of ruling party men, some ward councillors and market committee members are behind these unlawful activities.

Not only have they constructed shops in the markets' basements, toilets, open spaces and corridors, but also earned crores of taka by either selling or renting those out to traders, according to a recent survey of the city corporation.

DRIVE AGAINST ILLEGAL SHOPS

Amid such a situation,  DSCC recently started a drive against shops, which were built violating  the main design of the supermarkets.

The city corporation on  December 8 and December 17 demolished several hundred illegal shops at  Fulbaria Supermarket-2 and Sundarban Square Market in Gulistan.

Contacted,  Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said they will continue their drive and  demolish all the illegal shops from the DSCC markets gradually.

Traders  and shop owners, however, protested the DSCC move, saying that they  have documents from the city corporation to operate the shops.

According  to sources, construction of these illegal markets started during late  mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka's tenure. This illegal activity started to  take a more "organised" shape during the time of administrators after  the split of Dhaka City Corporation, they added.

For example, a  syndicate comprising DSCC ward-20 councillor Farid Uddin Ahmed Ratan,  Juba League president of DSCC (Ward-20) Haji Md Shahabuddin, former DCRO  of DSCC Yusuf Ali Sardar (who lost his job this year) and former  official (Kanungo) Mohammad Ali (who lost his job earlier due to the allegations)  and some market samity leaders were behind construction of illegal shops  in four markets -- Sundarban, Gulistan Trade Centre (Puran Bazar Market  or Pora market), Dhaka Trade Centre and Bangabazar Complex.

They constructed the shops from 2011 to 2013, sources said.

'IT WASN'T US'

Contacted, Councillor Ratan and Shahabuddin denied the allegations.

Ratan said there is no scope of interfering with any market activities outside of his ward and Sundarban market is not a part of his ward.

"I do not have any shop in any market and I am not a member of any market committee," he told The Daily Star recently.

Shahabuddin also said he was not involved with the construction or temporary allotment of shops at Dhaka Trade Centre or Bangabazar complex as he is not a member of their committees.

Though he became joint secretary of Sundarban Square Super Market in 2017, he was not involved with the temporary allotment, he said.

"The shop allotment in the basement of Sundarban market was done during the tenure of late mayor Khoka. Later, the city corporation constructed shops at the place of escalators and generators and gave temporary allotments to traders," he claimed.

He alleged that around 327 shops were constructed in the parking lot of Puran Bazar Market and the market committee's leaders were behind it.

Meanwhile, former deputy chief revenue officer Yusuf Ali also said the illegal shops were set up during mayor Khoka's tenure and the time of the administrators.

"I was not involved with those," he claimed.

He said the DSCC state department was behind the construction and giving allotment to those shops. "The revenue section was not behind it," he added.

Yusuf said they took an initiative to collect revenue from the markets in 2018 as DSCC was being deprived of it.

HOW SHOPS WERE BUILT

Market Sources said the syndicate constructed additional shops on the fourth floor of the Sundarban market and took Tk 12 lakh from each trader for the shops.

They sold escalators worth Tk 2.83 crore and generators worth Tk 1.85 crore and constructed 64 more shops at the place, said a market committee leader.

They sold each shop for Tk 30 lakh to Tk 50 lakh in 2012-2013 fiscal. They sold at least 250 shops, the leader said wishing anonymity.

This syndicate also constructed 80 illegal shops in Adarsha Market in Bangabazar Shopping Complex in 2018 and sold those for Tk three to five lakh each, according to a leader of the market samity.

Forty-three illegal shops were constructed on the second floor of Mahanagar market of Bangabazar Complex in 2013 by the same syndicate. They sold each shop for Tk 20 lakh each, said a leader of its market committee.

The same syndicate also constructed around 400 illegal shops violating the main design in Dhaka Trade Centre and 250 of them have already been sold, they said.

It rented out 500 shops to traders taking Tk 1 lakh for each shop on a yearly basis even before completion of the market.

Meanwhile at Fulbaria Supermarket-2 in Gulistan, some 911 shops were constructed illegally in the open and parking spaces of the market's A, B, and C blocks (City Plaza, Nagar Plaza and Zaker Plaza) over the years, according to DSCC.  

Sources said crores of taka were spent in underhand dealings for constructing and running the illegal shops.

Some 2,300 shops were constructed at the Fulbaria Supermarket-2 following the main design. But 911 others were built illegally at different times. Of them, 308 are in block-A, 292 in block-B, and 311 in block-C.

DSCC sources said the construction of the illegal shops in the basement started in 1997 when late Mohammad Hanif was the mayor. With some conditions, he allowed the traders association concerned to run businesses in the basement temporarily.

During the tenure of late mayor Khoka, some traders also got permission to run businesses temporarily. But since 2012, the construction of illegal shops went on on a large scale following the then administrator's permission, they said.

DSCC sources said though the owners and traders got permission from the administration to temporarily run several hundred shops for rent, they made permanent structures and increased the number of shops to 911.

Firoz Ahmed, general secretary of Zakir Market's Owners Samity, said they got the allotment of 911 shops during the tenure of the DSCC administrator.

He added that they paid rent only for two months and after that DSCC stopped taking rent. The other administrators and former mayor Sayeed Khokon did not take any rent from them.

He said in 2018, they filed a writ petition with the High Court against the DSCC move to demolish their shops.

After that, a section of DSCC officials took Tk 5 to 10 lakh from each of them as outstanding rent and gave them trade licences, he claimed.

Firoz said DSCC did not give them any trade licence.

DSCC again stopped taking rent after Taposh became mayor, he claimed, adding that they got the notice of eviction on December 6. "We sought one month's time from the mayor, but we did not get it," he said.

Contacted, former mayor Khokon told The Daily Star that illegal shops had been running there for a long time.

He said when they went to demolish those, the shop owners and traders filed a writ petition with the HC and following the HC directives, they revised their decision at a board meeting of the DSCC.

He said following the decision, they made the shops that paid their rents legal.

About taking money, Khokon said DSCC did not take any money for giving the traders licences, it just took all the outstanding rent from them.

COUNCILLOR RATAN SHOW-CAUSED

On December 17 last year, DSCC served a show-cause notice on Councillor Ratan.

The notice, signed by Mayor Taposh, mentioned that according to some media reports, the ward-20 councillor is taking money using the name of the existing mayor to "help" people get shops in some markets including Puran Bazar Hawkers Market and Pora market.

It also asked the councillor to explain why legal actions will not be taken against him in this regard.

Asked, Ratan denied the allegation. Without elaborating any further, he said he will reply to the city corporation accordingly.

KHOKON SUED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT

Meanwhile on December 29, former mayor Sayeed Khokon and six others were sued on charges of embezzlement of Tk 34.89 crore.

Delwar Hossain, president of Traders-Owners Association of Fulbaria City Supermarket-2 in Gulistan, filed the case with the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Ashek Imam, Atiqur Rahman, bench assistant of the court, told The Daily Star.

The six other accused are: Yusuf Ali Sardar, former chief revenue officer of the city corporation, Md Mazed, former deputy assistant engineer of the city corporation, and their assistants Kamrul Hasan, Helena Akter, Atiqur Rahman Swapan and Md Walid.

According to the case document, Khokon and six others conspired with one another and built shops, violating the main design of Fulbaria City Supermarket-2.

On December 30, a Dhaka court directed the Police Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case and submit a probe report by January 31 this year.