High-rise hopes for the commoners
PLANNED urbanisation with a proper scheme of housing and settlement for the low and medium income group is woefully missing. Dhaka is dotted with small settlements at the fringe of each residential locus. Even some posh enclaves like Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Banani are changing in a negative direction, losing much of the characteristic of an ideal residential area. The original residential pattern, full of well-planned accommodations built around open spaces, is gradually fading.
Along with high-rise buildings there are numerous dilapidated huts and tin houses, built mostly by the poor people. The changing face of Dhaka, once called a green city, is characterised by apartment blocks sprouting like mushrooms. It has, thus, become an "urban jungle." Nowadays, houses with gardens and orchards are hardly available in Dhaka.
Multi-storied flats are close to each other with a little space in between -- no park, no playground. Whereas Kolkata, once identified as the most congested Asian city, now looks impressive with numerous open spaces, fields and parks near the residential locus. An open city like Chittagong, endowed with rich natural infrastructure, has also been affected by unplanned urbanisation.
The poor, mostly consisting of factory labourers, rickshaw pullers, vendors and maid servants, live in slum areas in squatter settlements. In Chittagong, risk-prone slums are situated along hillsides or on hilltops frequently visited by natural hazards.
The government is planning to develop 22,800 plots and build 26,000 apartments in the next three years, according to budget disclosure. Housing for all is contained in Vision 2021. The government will provide accommodations with modern facilities to rural residents through rural housing schemes around the growth centers in each union and upazila.
The budget 2009-10 speech makes it clear that steps have been taken to revise the National Housing Policy 1999 and reform the Bangladesh National Building Code 1993 to make "housing and construction activities safer, sustainable and streamlined."
The government's plan to provide residential accommodation to all also includes insolvent freedom fighters. An initiative has been taken to build shelter homes for the floating population in the urban areas for creating employment opportunities.
Possession of an apartment in the metropolitan urban areas has become a pretty tough. It is like a golden deer. For the poor and fixed income group possessing an apartment is a distant dream.
The 2009-2010 budget provides scope for the black money makers to purchase apartments by paying tax. We are morally constrained from allowing them to do so as they earn a lot from illegal activities like embezzlement, kickbacks, bribery and fraud, smuggling, hoarding and black marketing, tax evasion and outright tax fraud.
In the case of apartment purchase by whitening black money the tax rates have been fixed at Tk.400, Tk.600, Tk.800, Tk.1000 and Tk.1500 per square meter for different sizes and locations. Once ill-gotten money finds an outlet to come into play the outcome will be disastrous for the commoners. Their hopes of a flat or apartment are sure to be dashed, because black money as bad money will drive legally earned good money out of circulation so far as real estate is concerned. The destinies of the low and middle income groups aspiring for strategic possession like apartment will be enveloped in the darkness of despair and despondency.
Rehab's scheme of housing for the economically disadvantaged section in the metropolitan cities will be difficult to implement once the criminal syndicate takes the upper hand, increasing market prices of cement, iron and other construction materials far beyond the affordability of the commoners. The recent house-boom in Dhaka is a boon to the economically affluent and bane to the commoners.
Admittedly, the housing problem is now an awfully stupendous one all over the country, but the government has a plan to provide houses for all, including the rural citizens. The disadvantaged people, who are supposed to benefit from a social safety net, need residential accommodation. For this reason, housing for all should have been brought under the social safety net to be extended with much enhanced allocation. Otherwise, the expectation of the low income section for a house will turn into frustration -- to the trepidation of the policy makers.
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