Flats handover demanded

Affected flat owners of the city's Bhashantek housing scheme yesterday demanded the land ministry handing over their respective flats immediately.
Otherwise, they said they would go for demonstration, forming human chain and observing fast unto death, if their demands are not met within two weeks.
They were speaking at a press conference under the banner “Low income and slum dwellers rehabilitation council” at the Jatiya Press Club.
They also protested the alleged move to turn the designated community centre of Bhashantek Punarbashan Prokolpa (rehabilitation project) into a police station.
Zahirul Islam Masum, one of the flat owners, while reading out a statement, said only 1,100 out of around 4,500 applicants were handed their apartments so far while the rest are passing days in uncertainty and anxiety.
The land ministry hired a private developer, North South Property Development Ltd, to build 15,024 flats for the low income groups and slum dwellers.
But the ministry dismissed the contract with the developer on allegations of anomalies around two years back when the project was half way through, said Masum.
Meanwhile, each flat applicant paid Tk2 to 8 lakhs to the developer depending on the size and category of the flats
Demanding investigation into the anomalies in the project, the speakers said the project caused untold sufferings to the flat owner's due to a corrupt section of the land ministry officials interfering with the project's implementation.