Housing delayed is housing denied
While Dhaka hits the global headlines as one of the fastest growing cities in the world by population, unplanned development, enhanced by land encroachment and flouting of legal requirements, irresponsible approach to professional obligations by all and sundry, and display of the 'thumb' by the greedy and corrupt, has led the housing situation to an ever-shifting brink where today more than a third of the urban population four decades into our independence live in dire conditions, unimaginable for many.
Heartening as it is the initiative of the past caretaker government, as also taken by some previous governments, to seek professional opinion as a start to understanding the depth of the problem and the possible solution, (there can be several more), we are tired of study findings that zero in on the structural and financial weaknesses of government agencies, and the legal shortcomings, because that is from we take a U-turn before embarking on the next study. Studies shall continue, evaluation shall be required, but raw action is what the present government should focus on because futile is the exercise where the objective lies on a death bed.
The delay in piloting some of the proposals of the past and even those recommended by the Centre of Urban Studies (CUS) in today's piece by Professor Nazrul Islam, Architect-Urban Planner Salma A. Shafi and Planner Md. Moniruzzaman can only multiply the housing demand to a deeper abyss, if that is possible.
The fact that the Detail Area Plan (DAP) of RAJUK's Structure Plan (1995-2015) is in a state of incompletion as well as lacking implementation fourteen years into its supposed launch reflects a tale of abject failure. One way to avoid the disaster that beckons us is to commence with local approaches guided by a thorough interaction of the stakeholders concerned while being aware of wider networking and consequences, especially the critical rural-urban interaction.
The issue of involving agricultural land in development works, however minimally, is always sensitive and gives the wrong encouragement to 'interested' and 'powerful' quarters. For in undertaking any development works, it will pay to remember that even our planned areas have not remained as planned.
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