Illegal market demolished, road still unusable
About seven years ago, a road adjacent to Baldha Garden in Old Dhaka was leased -- shown as “an open and abandoned site” -- to build a market. Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) recently dismantled the establishment but left the road in a state that can still be best described “abandoned”.
Visiting the spot yesterday, this correspondent found debris piled up all over the road. Concrete slabs are still on the road, and partition wall still stands in one or two places. The south entrance is blocked with tree branches and twigs while the north entrance is partially blocked with poultry cages.
There is no way to walk on the road without stumbling on rubble, said Hafizur Rahman, a shopkeeper in Wari.
“At night this place becomes a safe haven for drug users,” he added.
Mahmud Chowdhury, a resident of Narinda, said the city corporation demolished the market before the Eid-ul-Azha in July.
He said, “These have been here since the city corporation demolished the market. It seems they did not want to free the road at all.”
In a strange move, DSCC in 2012 leased out the public road near Baldha Garden to local Awami League men, who set up 44 shops on the road and turned it into a kitchen market. Some of the shops were rented out and some were sold.
Local leaders kept some shops for themselves while the rest were sold for Tk 6-10 lakh each.
The road is adjacent to the western wall of Baldha Garden, between Nawab Street and Hare Street in Wari.
In January this year, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case accusing incumbent DSCC councilor of Wari Sarwar Hasan Alo, former DSCC administrator Khalilur Rahman, and 46 others for their alleged involvement in setting up a kitchen market on the road near Baldha Garden in 2012.
Documents state that Tasabbibor Hossain, son of Ward-41 AL president Abul Hossain, and local AL activist Shahidul Hasan jointly sought the allocation of 1,980 sqft area of the lane for setting up a market in early 2012 -- showing the place as “open and abandoned”.
Estate Department officials of DSCC were supposed to survey and see whether the site could be allocated for a market but they did not do so, as they themselves were part of the plot, according to the FIR of the case filed by ACC.
In the middle of this year, DSCC’s Estate Department demolished the market.
Contacted, DSCC’s current Chief Estate Officer Rasel Sabrin said, “If debris still remains on the site, those will be cleaned up soon.”
Six surveyors of DSCC, who were involved in the leasing process, were suspended after ACC filed the case, he said.
ACC tasked one of its deputy directors, Hafizul Islam, to prepare charge sheet of the case. The charge sheet, however, was yet to be submitted.
Contacted, Hafizul declined to make any comment over the delay in filing the charge sheet.
“I’ve heard the market has been demolished,” he added.
DSCC councilor Sarwar Hasan Alo could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
On August 23, 2015, The Daily Star ran a report titled “Road given to AL men” which highlighted allocation of the road for kitchen market in clear violation of law.
On December 14, 2015 a High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo questioned legality of construction of the kitchen market and asked the authorities concerned of the government to explain why the construction should not be declared illegal.