The post Tree planting fund lies idle appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Dhaka South City Corporation environment circle executive engineer Mohammad Towhid Siraj said Tk 10 lakh was allocated for tree plantation for the 2012-2013 fiscal year and Tk 25 lakh for 2011-2012 fiscal year of the undivided city corporation but the total fund remained unutilised because of confusion over planting a particular species of tree.
He said in 2011 there was a debate over planting North America and Chinese origin paulowmia trees, which were said to hazardous for the environment, and after that they could not decide which trees to be planted.
Towhid hoped that they would be able to start planting trees from the upcoming 2013-2014 financial year.
They are preparing a digital database on the number of trees planted after Dhaka City Corporation started its work and the number of the existing plants in the capital, he said.
At present, the environment circle of the city corporation is working on an umbrella project ‘Dhaka City Corporation ruined roads, drains and footpath development’ and regional offices of the city corporations are doing tree plantation work, said Towhid.
The DSCC area executive officers, however, said they did not know anything about tree plantation and they did not get any such order from the authorities concerned.
Another Tk 10 lakh was allocated for tree plantation in the 2012-2013 fiscal year for the Dhaka North City Corporation, said its environment circle superintendent engineer Tariq Bin Yosuf.
He said even there was no maintenance of the capital’s existing trees by the private organisations participating under city beautification project.
Tariq said proper maintenance mechanism needed to take care of the existing trees and those which would be planted in future.
He informed that at present some private organisations plant some trees in the capital though there is no specific data as the city corporations lack monitoring over those organisations’ beatification work.
Tariq said that after the split, Dhaka North City Corporation lacked space to run their office and a year was spent to cope up with other issues and tree plantation did not get priority.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Govt fails to protect rivers around city from pollution appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Authority from dumping the city’s solid and liquid wastes into the rivers.
Expressing particular concern over the dumping by these authorities into the Buriganga, Save the Environment Movement joint general secretary Syed Monowar Hossain told New Age that the decision of a taskforce set up by the government to save the country’s rivers has simply not been implemented due to political inefficiency and corruption.
‘Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority had agreed to seal WASA’s 138 sewerage outlets through which the city’s wastes are dumped into Buriganga, but there is no alternative plan about where to deposit those wastes, if they do that,’ Monowar said.
‘Many factories have yet to set up effluent treatment plants which they should immediately do or else the city’s rivers will pollute due to industrial effluents which pose a threat to biodiversity,’ he added.
Chief Waste Management Officer of DCC South told New Age that every day around 5-10 tonnes of wastes collected from the city’s streets by the DCC cleaners are dumped in the Demra landfill.
According to the chief officer, the collected wastes have never been disposed of into the river Buriganga.
Asked about the proper cleaning of industrial wastes, he said that all the industries near the Buriganga, are illegally constructed and the owners do not pay regular tax and hence the DCC is not bound to clean the wastes of these businesses.
‘Those who live near the Buriganga dispose of their household wastes on the street as there are no waste collection bins or containers due to the narrow lanes, but the waste collection trucks collect the disposed material at a specific time every day,’ he said.
He told New Age that BIWTA had promised the DCC South to give spaces in order to place dustbins or containers as the streets of Sadarghat and Badamtali are very narrow, but that the BIWTA chairman has not done anything and he was not meeting DCC officials even though they have tried to meet him repeatedly, he added.
The local people said that every afternoon DCC South cleaners collect the wastes but they do not do it properly and as a result the bank of Buriganga is full of rubbish polluting the river.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andalan secretary general Abdul Matin said that according to the report of Institute of Water Modeling 2008, financed by World Bank, around 60 per cent of pollution is caused by industries and 30 per cent by DCC and WASA together.
‘Though WASA has a sewerage cleaning system at Pagla in Narayanganj, the sewerage connection of the newly constructed buildings has illegally been connected by WASA staffs with the storm water line which falls into the Buriganga,’ he added.
He also said that only 10 per cent of the river pollution is the result of actions by the public which could be reduced through raising awareness amongst them.
WASA managing director Taqsem A Khan told New Age that around 70 per cent of the Buriganga pollution was caused by tanneries and indiscriminate industrial effluent.
He denied that there was any sewerage outlet connected to the Buriganga but admitted that whilst the connection of storm water drainage lines to the river should not be harmful, recently many sewerage lines of newly constructed buildings have been illegally connected to the WASA’s storm water drainage lines that polluted the Buriganga water.
‘WASA’s main sewerage line is connected to its treatment plant at Pagla in Narayanganj,’ he added.
The Managing director said that unfortunately WASA covered only 30 per cent of the city’s sewerage wastes.
According to RAJUK policy, every building should have a sewerage safety tank but many do not, he added.
‘We have given notice to them for not doing this but we failed to stop them,’ Taqseem said
‘But the decision of taskforce is to cut their sewerage lines and we will do that soon’, he added.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post HC clears way for holding DCC elections appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The HC came up with the order rejecting a writ petition that was filed challenging the legality of the EC decision to hold DCC polls without updating the voter list of the DCC (North and South) according to the electoral rules before holding the elections.
“There is no legal bar in holding the DCC election following the HC order,” Advocate Shahdin Malik, counsel for EC told reporters after the HC order.
Upon a writ petition another bench of the HC on April 16 last year, stayed for three months the operation of all actions initiated by the Election Commission for holding elections to the divided Dhaka City Corporation slated for May 24 last year.
Later, it extended its stay order for several times.
It also asked the Election Commission to update the DCC electoral roll by that time.
The HC also issued a rule upon the respondents, including the commission, to explain in two weeks why it should not be directed to hold DCC elections after implementation of the prescribed election-related rules of Local Government (City Corporation) Act-2009, including delimitation of the DCC wards.
The government and EC today replied to a HC rule that asked them to explain why they should not be directed to delimit the areas of DCC wards as per the relevant rules.
In reply they said, they have updated the DCC (North and South) voter list and also delimited the areas of DCC wards according to the Local Government (City Corporation) Act-2009, Murshid said.
Advocate Manzill Murshid, who had filed the writ petition on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), told reporters that there is no legal bar for holding the polls as both the government and Election Commission (EC) have completed their legal procedure.
Now, it is the duty of the election commission to take decision about holding the DCC polls, he added.
Soon after the HC order, Election Commissioner Md Shah Nawaz told reporters that they would take initiatives for holding the DCC election after getting the copy of the HC verdict.
-With The Independent input
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]]>The post DSCC assists project working with pavement dwellers appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The project, funded by Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh and Irish Aid, is being implemented in partnership with the Dhaka North and Dhaka South city corporations, Sajida Foundation, Nari Maitree, Social and Economic Enhancement Programme, and the Coalition for the Urban Poor.
As a part of the initiative, the DSCC with the help of the Amrao Manush Project partners held a rally of around 500 pavement-dwelling children on the premises of its head office on Thursday.
Secretary to Local Government Division Abu Alam Mohammad Shahid Khan inaugurated the rally, with DSCC administrator Mohammad Nazrul Islam and chief executive officer Mohammad Ansar Ali Khan and officials of the project implementing partner organisations present.
After the rally, the DSCC handed over Tk 500 as a one-time stipend to each of 280 pavement-dwelling children.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Dhaka city corpns to impose tax on hotel boarders appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The government is going to introduce ‘city tax’ for boarders at the hotels in the city corporation areas, high officials of the Dhaka city corporations said.The rate of the tax will be set on the basis of the categories of the hotels and guest houses, they said.
The local government ministry is likely to introduce the tax by amending rules under the Local Government (City Corporation) Act, 2009 by this month, said revenue officials of the Dhaka city corporations.
They said the ministry had already given its nod to introduction of the tax.
‘Once the rules are amended, we will publish gazette notification on the revision,’ said Tajul Islam Prodhan, chief revenue officer of the Dhaka South City Corporation.
Currently boarders pay the government 15 per cent VAT imposed by the National Board of Revenue.
‘This tax is an additional one. Boarders have to pay it for using the facilities provided by the city corporations,’ said M Golam Mustafa Khan, chief revenue officer of the Dhaka North City Corporation.
‘All the developed countries impose this tax. It is nothing new,’ he said.
Tajul Islam said, ‘The city corporations proposed imposing15 per cent city tax. The ministry, however, is thinking to impose up to 5 per cent tax.’
The rate of the tax is likely to be set at 5 per cent for the five star hotel, 3 per cent for the three star hotel and 2 per cent for the below three star hotel.
As all the hotels received trade licences from the city corporations and they pay holding tax to the corporations, the
corporations will use the list in imposing and collecting the tax, the officials said.
The officials, however, said that the city corporations did not hold any
discussion with the owners of the hotels over the issue.
‘We did not sit with the hotel owners over the tax,’ said Tajul.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Dhaka city corpns far behind revenue target appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>As of March 2013, the Dhaka South City Corporation collected only Tk 178 crore against a target of Tk 408 crore and Dhaka North City Corporation Tk 217 crore against a target of Tk 405.9 crore.
Officials of both city corporations said that the low level of collection reflected a failure on the part of revenue payers to voluntarily pay their tax, a lack of enforcement and legal complexities concerning jurisdiction of the city corporations.
The low rate of collection, however, reflects past failures of the unified city corporation.
In 2010-11, the city corporation collected Tk 473 crore only against a target of Tk 558 crore and in 2009-10 collected Tk 350 crore against an expected Tk 457 crore.
The two city corporations’ revenue departments are currently collecting nine different categories of taxes including market tax (salami), holding tax, trade licenses, and advertisements.
The south city corporation chief revenue officer Tajul Islam Pradhan told New Age that many revenue payers refused to pay their taxes on time, though he acknowledged that the corporation ‘should improve its enforcement system.’
He blamed a lack of manpower and said that the number of tax positions should be increased.
Each corporation zone had one taxation officer position, five posts for deputy taxation officers and 10-12 positions for revenue supervisors, Tajul said.
The north city corporation is also suffering its own particular difficulties in collecting taxes.
Chief revenue officer Mohammad Golam Mostafa Khan said that some residents living in Uttara sector 12 to sector 14 filed a writ petition challenging the inclusion of the area in the city corporation, he said.
This means that the corporation cannot collect revenue amounting to Tk 98 crore in the present fiscal year.
‘But these sectors are in our jurisdiction,’ Golam Mostafa argued.
Both chief revenue officers said that the political instability this year had hindered economic activities resulting in many payers reluctant to pay their tax on time.
The late president, Zillur Rahman, on December 1, 2011 signed into law formalising the division of the corporation into Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Renewal of non-motorised vehicles’ licence stalled appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The licence of no non-motorised vehicles in the Dhaka city has not been renewed since 2011 when the erstwhile Dhaka City Corporation was split into two parts.
Procedural complexities have been blamed for this, which deprived both the city corporations of the yearly revenues from the sector.Both the Dhaka NorthCity Corporation and the Dhaka South City Corporation have failed to collect any revenue form this sector though they had a target to collect Tk 2 crore in this fiscal year.
The revenue officials of two city corporations said they could not collect revenue from this sector in the last fiscal year too.
As part of the ongoing digitisation in the country, the city corporations initiated providing digital number plate for the non-motor vehicles for easy identification of the non-registered vehicles including rickshaws.
The Dhaka South City Corporation was involved in updating the list of non-motor vehicles and the list was sent to the Dhaka North City Corporation on November 14 last year.
‘The list was prepared in November last year. So, it will take time to complete other tasks including preparing number plates under a digital programme,’ said chief revenue officer of the Dhaka North City Corporation M Golam Mustafa Khan.
According to the list, over 70 thousand rickshaws are to be renewed under the Dhaka South City Corporation while over 26,800 rickshaws under the Dhaka North City Corporation.
Apart from this, a total of 1969 non-motor vans are to be renewed under the DNCC.
The DSCC in 2012-2013 fiscal year targeted to collect Tk 1.5 crore while the DNCC targeted Tk 50 lakh as revenues from the sector.
‘But no revenue was collected form this sector in the last two fiscal years,’ DSCC chief revenue officer Tajul Islam Prodhan has told New Age.
The chief revenue officers said the process of preparing the number plate and relevant registration papers was going on.
The office of chief store officer in the DSCC and DNCC were preparing the number plates.
‘For this, the tender process is also going on,’ Tajul Islam Prodhan said.
About digitisation of the number plates, he said the suppliers would supply a machine capable of identifying the licence and also the name of the city corporation which provides the licence.
‘It will also identify the rickshaws without registration,’ Tajul Islam said.
They said the revenue would be collected soon after the process was completed, they said.
‘All the revenue would be collected,’ said Golam Mustafa Khan.
According to the government instruction, providing new licence for rickshaw and van has been stopped.
The city corporation provided licence to rickshaws and vans in 1986-1987 fiscal year for the last time.
The licences were provided to those rickshaws and vans which were present at the National Parade Square at that time.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post DCC official draws flak from locals appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>DCC official draws flak from locals
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) administrator was severely rebuked by transport workers and local people at Jatrabari in the capital yesterday while he was accompanying the communications minister to check the condition of roads.
Such a situation ensued after a Chittagong-bound luxury bus of Saudia Paribahan got one of its front wheels stuck in an earth-filled ditch right before DSCC Administrator Jillar Rahman and Communications Minister Obaidul Quader.
As the bus driver made attempts to drive the bus out of the ditch, people and transport workers gathered around the two and vented their anger at Jillar. Utility service providers have been digging trenches along the two sides of the roads from Gulistan to Jatrabari for over two months to relocate the utility lines. The relocation has been done on some portions of the roads, but the city corporation is yet to take any step to make the repairs.
Jillar had not made any effort to fill the ditches with sand, leaders of transport workers said, yelling at him. The DSCC administrator then left the place, saying nothing in his defence.
Quader, after visiting the roads between Jatrabari and Kanchpur, said commuters in the areas had been suffering a lot because of the ditches dug by four utility service providers. He hoped the DSCC would repair the roads before the Eid vacation.
He also said the DSCC administrator had informed him that all the utility service providers– Titas gas transmission and distribution company, Dhaka water supply and sewerage authority, Dhaka power distribution company and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd– would complete their tasks by today.
The roads at Jatrabari had also been damaged due to the ongoing construction of the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover, the minister said, adding, however, that the area was not under the communication ministry.
Chief Engineer of DSCC Jahangir Alam said there was no way to drain water from the road near a fish wholesale market in Jatrabari and that was why the authorities could not start the repair work. Water remained stagnant as a market was being constructed, filling in a portion of Kutubkhali canal nearby, he added.
As a temporary solution, the roads would be repaired with brick chips within three to four days to reduce the sufferings of commuters, Jahangir said.
The condition of roads under the communication ministry is much better now than it was earlier, Quader noted. Road conditions would be improved and people will not face much difficulty in their journey to their village homes before Eid, he said, adding mobile units of the Roads and Highways Department had been working round the clock to repair ditches and potholes on highways across the country.
Acknowledging his failure to reduce traffic congestion and road accidents, the minister said coordination among the communication ministry, police, district administrations, local governments and highway police was needed to find a way out of the problem.
-With The Daily Star input
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]]>The post Polls to divided Dhaka city on May 24 appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The last elections to the undivided Dhaka city corporation was held in April of 2002 in which Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Sadeque Hossain Khoka was elected mayor and held the office until Dhaka city was divided on November 30 last year although his tenure had expired in May 2007.
Chief election commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad announced the election schedule at a press conference at the EC’s conference room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
Election commissioners Mohammad Abu Hafiz, Mohammad Abdul Mobarak, Md Zabed Ali, Md Shanewaz, EC secretary Muhammed Sadique and the two returning officers attended the press conference.
Senior deputy secretary Mihir Sarwar Morshed has been appointed returning officer for the DCC north polls and electoral training institute director general Khandaker Mizanur Rahman, also a deputy secretary, for the DCC south elections.
According to the schedule, candidates can collect and submit nomination papers until April 19 and withdraw them by May 2. The commission will scrutinise the nomination papers in April 22-23.
DCC elections will be the first polls to be held under the incumbent EC that was instituted on February 9, 2012.
Over 38 lakh registered voters are expected to exercise their franchise to elect mayors for Dhaka North and South cities, 92 councillors for general wards and 31 councillors for wards reserved for women.
The EC will set up 1,084 polling stations for 21,72,427 voters in the Dhaka North city corporation polls and 873 polling stations for 16,80,499 voters of the Dhaka South city corporation polls.
Of the total of 38,52,926 voters in the two city areas, 20,61,482 are male voters with 11,44,604 males in the north.
The commission will require about 30,000 personnel from the law-enforcing agencies for security during the elections.
During the 21 days of hustings, 92 executive magistrates will be in charge of as many mobile courts in as many general wards. A judicial magistrate will be on duty for each three reserved wards.
The magistrates will monitor enforcement of electoral laws.
Ten teams of law enforcers will operate and strike in case of election violence. EC inspectors will visit all the wards to inform the commission about the latest election atmosphere.
Announcing the election schedule, the CEC sought cooperation from all, including the political parties and media houses, to hold the polls smoothly and peacefully.
Asked whether the commission did have any
plan to deploy army troops for the polls to maintain law and order, Rakibuddin Ahmad said, ‘The
commission will take necessary steps in accordance with the demand of the time.’
As for use of controversial electronic voting machines in the polls, the commission said it was planning to use EVMs. ‘But we will decide later how many polling stations will have EVMs.’
The previous EC headed by ATM Shamsul Huda in April 2010 had moved to hold the long overdue polls to the DCC in May the same year. But the Awami League-led government did not agree.
DCC was divided on Nov 30 last year with the passage of a law that set a 90-day deadline for holding the polls. But the Huda-led EC expressed inability to hold the polls by the stipulated time as its tenure was expiring early February.
In such a situation, the government again amended the relevant law on February 28 and extended the time limit for holding the polls, which will now expire on May 29.
Courtesy of New Age
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]]>The post Mosquitoes free to bite appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
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Though the Dhaka City Corporation was bifurcated with a view to improving public service, city dwellers are hardly getting any respite from mosquito menace.Life indoors and outdoors in the capital has become so uncomfortable due to this seasonal boom of mosquitoes. The homeless and security guards are their easiest prey.
Students, especially the candidates of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and the upcoming Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams, are the worst victims of this nuisance.
Residents, particularly of Basabo, Mirpur, Pallabi, Mohammadpur, Lalmatia, Uttara, Nayabazar, Nawabpur, Jatrabari, Madartek, Kazipara, Shewrapara, Moghbazar, Rampura, Khilgaon, Sutrapur and Gendaria have been complaining the most about the menace.
Nasima Begum, a homemaker living in Basabo area, said anti-mosquito drives had been totally absent in their locality for the past few years.
“You can’t relax for a moment here unless you have an electric mosquito zapper (racket) in the hand all the time,” said Rizwan of Basabo, adding that killing a dozen did not matter as many more took their place within minutes.
This goes on until they take refuge inside mosquito nets, he added.
Studying is very difficult with all these biting and buzzing all around, said Alif Alam Meem, an SSC candidate living in Mirpur-12.
He said even burning two mosquito coils simultaneously could not help him concentrate in studies.
“Mosquito net is a must if someone wants to take a nap during the day,” said Mohammad Hasnet of Kazipara.
Officials of both Dhaka north and south city corporations blamed the adulticide shortage of the last five months, and lack of field monitoring and drain maintenance for the failure in mosquito control.
An official of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) last week said although the decision of procuring adulticide should be taken at the beginning of a fiscal year, fund crunch had delayed the process.
Over the last five months, anti-mosquito drives had to be carried out with half the amount of adulticide needed to contain mosquitoes, said an official of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
He identified lack of monitoring and the negligence of mosquito destruction crew and spray men as other key reasons behind the menace.
Just recently, the city corporations had each received 25,000 litres of adulticide, the official said.
Mohammad Nur-Un-Nabi, chief health officer of DNCC, last week said with this quantity they would be able to conduct drives for one month.
He said so far the field monitoring could not be carried out properly as the supervisors do not have the transport facility.
He suggested that everything like procurement of medicine, spraying and fogging equipment, and field works and funding be dealt by a particular department to give anti-mosquito drives the momentum.
Brig Gen Md Abdullah Al Harun, chief health officer of DSCC, said they had started a crash programme from February 25 which would continue until March 8.
“Under the programme, we will conduct anti-mosquito drives with full logistics in one or two wards in a day. We will spray and fog adulticide and larvicide to kill mosquitoes and larvae of that particular area(s) that day,” he said, adding that routine larviciding and adulticiding would continue after the programme ends.
“We have also been giving priority to waste management and requested the department concerned of the corporation to strengthen their activities,” said Brig Harun.
He said they had been asking people through horn speakers and messages in the print media to keep their houses clean since it is not possible for the city corporation employees alone to contain the menace.
Another official of DSCC pointed out that many of the drains in the capital are covered with concrete slabs which make it difficult for the city corporation men to reach the stagnant water underneath.
According to him, these covers should be removed in some areas of the capital.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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