Hoarding removal drive
Police stand in the way
The Dhaka City Corporation could not yet remove illegal hoardings and police boxes set up on road islands in the city and the corporation officials attributed the reason to ‘non-cooperation’ from the police.
City corporation officials said apart from about 2,000 illegal hoardings in the capital, there were about 350 to 400 illegal hoardings on the buildings of police department. Besides, there are about 200 police boxes constructed illegally in the middle of the city roads by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
The city corporation started the drive on March 18 to pull down illegal hoardings in spaces rented out by the police but was forced to suspend the drive as the DMP withdrew its forces.
In a question-and-answer session in parliament in its last session on September 21, the local government and rural development and cooperatives minister, Syed Ashraful Islam, said the
government had instructed the authorities concerned to remove all illegal police boxes.
‘Letters were issued to the police commissioner on September 14, 2009 and to the home ministry on November 22, 2009, in this regard asking them to pull down such illegal police boxes,’ he said.
But the police’s illegal hoardings and boxes are yet to be removed about more than a month a month after the minister’s statement.
The city corporation’s chief conservancy officer Bipan Kumar Saha told New Age recently, ‘How can we conduct the drive and remove police’s illegal hoardings , if the DMP does not cooperate.’
He, however, said talks were going on with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police to ‘solve the problem of police’s illegal hoardings.’
‘I have had talks with DMP’s traffic division officials on the issue. They would give us a list of the hoardings they would allow us to remove,’ Saha told New Age.
‘They have also agreed to dismantle some of their police boxes,’ he added.
The High Court on March 23 asked the police to provide the city corporation with police protection during the dismantling of the hoardings. It had also asked the police to explain its non-cooperation in the drive on March 18.
In response to the High Court order, Shahbagh police officer-in-charge Rezaul Karim appeared in the court on April 5 and pledged to provide all assistance to the city corporation in the drives against illegal hoardings.
DMP’s joint commissioner (traffic) Shafiqur Rahman said, ‘If there are any illegal hoardings, let the DCC dismantle them.’
About the police boxes, he said, ‘Most of the police boxes were set up by the people’s representatives, including lawmakers, spontaneously out of sympathy for the hard-working traffic police men.’
‘They need to take rest sometimes. Earlier, they had no place to take a little rest,’ he added.
When asked why they did not take approval from the city corporation, the traffic officer said, ‘The DCC often claims they provide the citizens with services. My question is: what is our function…Don’t we provide services to the people?’
Though the city roads belong to the Dhaka City Corporation, the DMP, which set up the boxes with the help of different ad firms and local lawmakers, did take no permission either from the corporation or from the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha.
Such police boxes have sprung up at almost every important junction of the capital, including Sonargaon crossing, Shahbagh, New Market, Kakrail, Panthapath, Bijoy Sarani, Asadgate, Shyamali and Mirpur 10 roundabout. Many of the boxes have been constructed on the pavements obstructing pedestrian movement.
