Doctored buildings on missing files

The trick is simple. Have your land assessed by an architect. Get them to draw a design, meticulously abiding by all the building construction rules. Then get the plan approved by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

Now, take a copy of the approved plan to an architect 'who knows exactly what to do'. Follow the doctored plan and you have a building that grossly violates all the Rajuk rules.

For instance, the rules forbid you from building a market at an intersection, and make it mandatory to have proper parking facilities.

But when the building is constructed following the doctored plan, you will find it a bustling shopping mall on a narrow, busy intersection without any proper parking facilities.

The results - traffic jams and pollution.

Traffic sergeants will sweat to streamline traffic. Noise pollution will soar. The walkways will turn into parking space and pedestrians will be forced to walk on the busy roads.

In case your building plan is rejected for one reason or another, the Rajuk officials and their organised gangs are ready to help you out.

If someone wants approval for a 20-storey building at a location marked for six-storey buildings, the gang would get the approval with 'proper signatures' of the 'authorised officers', sources said. In the process, they would hide or destroy the files in Rajuk's archive.

If the shopping mall venture becomes a public concern and attracts media attention, Rajuk would be asked to review the plan. But don't be surprised when Rajuk's 'naïve' officials report that they cannot find any file or plan of the building and so they cannot take any action.

The excuse Rajuk top officials usually give is that the whole 'nuisance' took place during the tenure of the 'last chairman' or the 'last authorised officer' or that the signatures have been forged.

Hundreds of such files are now missing from Rajuk's archive, making hundreds of buildings with gross irregularities permanent feature for the city.

On the Satmasjid Road at the busy Shankar intersection, a six-storey shopping mall has recently been constructed. The walkway in front of it has been converted into a parking place. Its underground parking has the entrance on the narrow and busy Shankar Road. Moreover, the parking is used as a warehouse for the mall.

All along the Satmasjid Road, Sheikh Kamal Swarani, Mirpur Road, Mohammadpur, Elephant Road, Mouchak, Sadarghat, Malibagh and Maghbazar, similar shopping malls with gross deviations are rapidly coming up.

The 'authorised officers' approved hundreds of building plans, violating height restrictions and other clauses of the Building Construction Rules, Rajuk sources said. Recently, when the authorities found out that hundreds of files are missing from all the four authorised officers, they started confiscating the approved plans from the building owners. The signatures on the plans retained by the owners matched those of the authorised officers, according to a source.

The chairman of Rajuk called the authorised officers to his office and asked them to countersign the documents. When their signatures matched those in the plans, the authorised officers flatly denied having anything to do with those approvals.

"Money had played the vital role here," said a Rajuk official on condition of anonymity. "When the building owners' plans were rejected by the Building Construction Committee on one reasons or another, the authorised officers and other officials concerned illegally approved the plans and hid or destroyed all relevant files."

"This proves that an organised gang is working inside Rajuk to help building owners flout the rules. This has spoiled the urban environment," the official said.