Tale of Rajuk and DCC men
IF you go to any DCC office to apply for a trade license the grim and grave looking men there will give you a long list of "rules and regulations." The list would say you cannot set up a trading office in a residential area; you cannot set up a manufacturing factory in a residential area; you cannot use any room in a residential area to store chemicals of any description, and so forth.
Sounds very good, indeed. You are impressed. How thoughtful of the DCC! You will step out of the "sacred precincts" of the DCC and then look around. Lo and behold! You will wonder aloud what those shops, plastic factories, metal factories, glass factories, food factories, garment factories and engineering workshops doing in Nawabpur, Islampur, Lalbagh, Azimpur, Wari, Tipu Sultan Road, Narinda, Gandaria, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Rayer Bazar, Mohammadpur, Mogh Bazar, Rampura, Banani, Gulshan and Uttara! You will scratch your head and contemplate: Aren't they supposed to be residential areas?
The law-abiding citizen that you are, you will look for a place in a non-residential area to set up your business and accordingly you will apply to DCC for a trade license. The clerks will look more grim and grave this time, as you did not insert plenty of 500 taka notes inside the envelope. They will now want to see the rent receipt to be sure that you have paid the rent. Next day you go there again with the receipts and this time the "dutiful" clerks will ask for the original deed of the building to make sure that the owner is the real owner of the building. With your head hung between your shoulders you will come out.
The building owner will get mad and ask you to go away. After pleading for a week he will give a photocopy of the deed and ask one of his sons to accompany you. But the dutiful clerks would not budge an inch. Original deed they want. Your ordeal might ultimately end when you will be able to go to a minister through the father of your brother-in-law's friend. By the time you get the trade license you will have lost all interest in doing business in Bangladesh. You will look for ways to go to a foreign country. Any place on earth.
The law-abiding citizen that you are, you will "acquire" similar experience in Rajuk, if you plan to go the "legal way" to construct a house. The common dialogues are: "Get this paper. Get that paper. Let us see your soil test result. Let us see your plan. Let us see the report of the structural engineer. You shall report at every stage of construction and we shall inspect and give the required clearance. These are the rules and regulations, you understand, and no one can bypass them, you know, we are very strict." You are impressed.
After one year, you will remember the exact number of steps on the stairs that take one to the top floor of Rajuk building. You will know the name of every peon of Rajuk and the names of their villages. You will suddenly notice the silver hairs, which were not there one year back. You will notice the wrinkles on your forehead that have become permanent. Your building plan has not been passed yet.
But, you will not have to go through any of the above rigmarole if you would not be so adamant about being a law-abiding citizen. There are ways to bend laws, rules and regulations, and those "dutiful" clerks and their bosses at DCC and Rajuk would show you the ways. In fact, they would feel much obliged if you would give them the opportunity to "serve" you. They are there to help you, you know? The evidences of their "selfless services" are there all across the city's residential areas.
Rent a room in a residential building and set up your factory or chemical store. Go to the DCC with wads of cash and you will get your trade license. Every year the inspector will come to your factory for "inspection." Order for biriyani and some cold drinks. He will go back to office a happy man with more wads of cash. And you will continue doing whatever you do in the factory until the day your family is burnt to death in a fire originating from that same factory. It is no more an apprehension. We have seen it happen it its most brutal force the other day.
Buy a piece of land on a recently filled-up water body and get in touch with an "experienced" rajmistiry (mason). He will tell you not to bother about Rajuk, as he knew a peon there who is a distant cousin. He will get the plan "passed" by the officials….pay the right amount. They would not even come to inspect the site. The mason will give you the estimate and you will be amazed at how low it is. You had no idea one could construct a 5-storied house for a couple of laks only!
So, you see, it is the officials and clerks and peons and drivers in DCC and Rajuk who continue to call the shots there. Just go on making them happy and they will look the other way as you go about doing all sorts of illegal things. Nothing can stop them. No law can touch them. No political party can uproot them. All the deep-throated hoomki and dhomki you hear from the ministers will vanish after a week and half. And DCC and Rajuk will be the same again. And we shall see many more buildings collapsing and many fire taking lives in residential areas. So, dear readers save your tears.
Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star. He can be contacted at shahnoorwahid @yahoo.co.uk
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