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Education in a competitive world -- Dr S.M.A. Faiz Higher education deficits in a drift -- Abdul Mannan Education for All-Beyond business as usual -- Rasheda K. Choudhury Islamic education heritage -- Dr A.M. Choudhury Economic diplomacy: Awaiting thrust -- Muhammad Zamir A wake-up call -- S. M. Rashed Ahmed Chowdhury New opportunities: New Challenges -- Syed Muazzem Ali Foreign relations: Taking a direction -- Ashfaqur Rahman Indo-Bangla ties: Old shadow, new vista -- C M Shafi Sami Towards a kinder, gentler peacekeeping -- Tazreena Sajjad Independence of the Higher Judiciary -- Asif Nazrul Problems of delay and backlog cases -- Dr. M. Shah Alam Juggling freedom and responsibility -- Shahid Alam Tourism in Bangladesh -- G. M. Quader MP The industrial policy dilemma -- Zahid Hussain 'Consumer redress' and 'empty pocket blues' -- Tureen Afroz How assertive has the Election Commission been? -- Manzoor Hasan Does the Election Commission exercise all its powers? --Mohammad Abu Hena Adivasi's tears and grief -- Sareeta Haider Architecture: How Green is Green? -- Ar. Zebun Nasreen Ahmed Chittagong Hill Tracts: Development without peace -- Naeem Mohaiemen Revisiting the BDR saga -- Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc, (Retd) Sexual harassment and our morals police -- Hana Shams Ahmed Garnering efforts is a sign of growing up -- Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed Rationalising the Intelligence services -- Muhammad Nurul Huda
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Garnering efforts is a sign of growing up Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmed
NO one will deny that being a police officer in Bangladesh is a thankless job. Our politicians since erstwhile Pakistan times have over decades also ensured that they swing their baton according to the sweet will of the party in power, which one hopes is a changing, what with the government's declared pledge to ring in a change. The signs are more clear after the execution of the historic long-awaited verdict on the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. No one will contest either the verity that executing one's duty as a traffic police officer on the streets of Dhaka is an uncomfortable job dressed in the most climatically incompatible attire, standing in the heat of the day and the wet of the rain that is made doubly strenuous because they do not have a shaded place that can be defined as a restroom. Often they have to relieve themselves by obliging a nearby shop owner or the security of a public building. It's a dog's life. And then we all grumble, even shout, when they see green in the red light, and vice versa. The amber, by the way, none of us notice. It is in the above context that some urban villains in the guise of philanthropists erected some hideous boxes of incongruous shapes in metal and glass, covered them with company advertisement, and dared to call them police boxes/shelters/ restrooms. Such revolting eyesores have now adorned almost every important junction of the capital Shahbagh, New Market, Mirpur No. 10 roundabout... What relief they offer to the dutiful police personnel is not fully understood yet, for although built this winter they will be hot ovens in summer, but advertised policing is not good policy as it opens wide the inquiring mind of the citizen. 'Can the officer remain above question for his action or non-action in case the offender is the owner of the product being advertised on the box?' the city dweller muses. His integrity will be under the shadow of the shed. The latest aggressive campaign by ad agencies is a continuation of a malpractice that began with private companies showing their product and police control room telephone numbers on the same sticker. Then we also saw road stumps bragging adverts of private property. Such supposedly innocent licenses allow cunning businesspeople the opportunity to appear as being extra-close with the law, and that stance can be misused in various ways. The police cannot allow that. The road belongs to the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and the police are under a separate command. The ad firms have practically built three-dimensional billboards for the police on DCC's land. The ugly structures need to be removed, but DCC cannot do so without the direct cooperation of the police. On the other hand, if no one takes responsibility, there is a possibility of dissension at ground level if the boxes are dismantled for the police personnel will feel that they have been robbed of a given facility. In the absence of any effective coordination between DCC and the police, the ad firms shall be having the last laugh. According to the Building Construction Act, 1952, a building includes a house, outhouse, hut, wall, and any other structure whether of masonry, bricks, corrugated iron sheets, metal, wood, bamboo, mud, leaves, grass, thatch, or any other material whatsoever. By that definition the structures erected by entrepreneurs (as publicised on them) as weather havens for the police are 'buildings'. Furthermore, Section 3 of the same Act says, I quote, no person shall without the previous sanction of the Authorised Officer (appointed by the government by Gazette notification) construct any building within the area to which the Act applies, and it very much applies to Dhaka. Sanction for such structures, small as they are, are usually not sought from RAJUK, the office of the Authorised Officer primarily due to ignorance of the law and perhaps more so because they were erected for use of a government agency. Assuming that no sanction is in place for the advertisement monsters in the semblance of police boxes, these structures are illegal in the eyes of the law of the country. The Act also empowers the Authorised Officer, thereby RAJUK, to direct the owner (the advertiser), the occupier (the police), and the person in charge of the building (here the police box made by the advertiser) to remove or dismantle the building, etcetera, etcetera. Unfortunately, we have had no statement from RAJUK or any Authorised Officer addressing the erection of the structures, which as mentioned earlier in an appropriate form are essential for the comfort of the police personnel, but by their existing disposition they have acquired the trait of public nuisance. The case of the police box highlights to some extent the difficulty of governing the capital city, not made any easier with the citizenry strength around ten million, and now too a large commuting population of several million. We are seeing how the requirement, the construction, and the removal of a simple structure entail here the coordinated efforts of the police, the DCC and the RAJUK. If we include issues of water supply, electricity, gas, traffic, waste disposal, sewerage, there will be the need to combine also the works of WASA, Dhaka Power Distribution, and Titas Gas. This brings us to the need for concerted efforts to manage the burgeoning capital by a form of city governance, which has been the call of the citizens as well as of city mayors for long. The city governor must be empowered to harmonize the duties and responsibilities of all the agencies and components that make a city run. Only then shall we comprehend the necessity of say a police box, appropriately designed it must be for the wellbeing of police workforce. Only then will its construction stand out as a meaningful contribution to the visual delight that makes citizens proud of their city. Till then, however, each separate organization of the government shall be contesting each other's decisions, pulling their labours in opposite direction; thereby pulling the city apart. Is not that what we have all being doing for ages? It is time we grew up to save our cities. |
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