Editorial
The faltering demolition drive
Strong, purposeful action over unauthorized structures imperative
Over the last couple of years there has been much talk and quite some action regarding structures falling foul of building regulations. During the period of the caretaker administration, some purposeful exercises were undertaken to demolish unauthorized structures. But at a point those drives appeared to come to a stop for reasons that have never been explained. And since the present government took over early this year, the demolition programme has been going on at various places in the capital. Every so often, there have been news reports of the authorities, in this case Rajuk, getting busy retrieving spots that have fallen into the hands of unscrupulous elements. In the past few weeks, if not months, one has come across reports and images of bulldozers busy pulling down parts of structures not authorized under the existing regulations.
That should have been cheering news; and indeed it was so in the initial stages. But now come reports, pretty substantiated ones, that speak of the overall demolition drive losing force and therefore turning out to have been an effort compromised. That is borne out by the fact that after the Rajuk authorities demolish a structure, or part of it, some mysterious happenstance results in the demolished structures or parts of buildings being restored. This much was made clear through a front-page photograph in the issue of this newspaper yesterday. A particular reason why the demolition drive was undertaken in the first place was the need for parking spaces at organizations purporting to provide public service. That is only normal, for when parking spaces are not made by such organizations, it is not just the law that is violated but also citizens' movement that is impeded. The question now is why all these years the Rajuk authorities allowed such buildings to come up or simply looked the other way when such gross activities were taking place.
If mistakes were made in the past, what is happening now is simply beyond explanation. Bulldozers demolish a structure and building owners are told in no uncertain terms that parking space for cars must be constructed there. Within the next few days or weeks, the situation is almost back to square one. Are we to suppose that the owners are too powerful to be intimidated by the law? Or must we suspect some underhand dealings to have gone into a rebuilding some of the demolished structures?
Let strong action be taken here. And such action must deal harshly not only with those who are guilty of putting up unauthorized structures but also those who undo demolition and those within the government who fail to follow up on their previous action.
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