A newspaper on Saturday reported that no progress is yet visible even a month after the Anti-Corruption Commission initiated a probe into the whereabouts of some 30,000 missing applications submitted to seek approval for building constructions under the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK). However, RAJUK authority has declined to admit their irresponsibility as the documents went missing from the National Data Centre in Gazipur.
We are appalled to learn that in a digital Bangladesh, what an unsecured server we are maintaining at the national level where our data has become abolished at any time without any prior notification! Though the High Court gave directives to investigate the reasons behind such sheer negligence, and the Anti-Corruption Commission made a probe committee honouring the court order, none can solve the secrets of huge unaccountability.
The applications seeking approvals for building plans placed to the RAJUK between May 2019 and December 6, 2022, have gone missing from the National Data Centre, according to RAJUK officials. The ACC on March 5 formed a three-member committee, headed by its director for system analysis to inquire if any corruption took place in connection with the documents going missing following a suo motu High Court directive issued on January 2. Senior ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan informed that the ACC might seek further time from the court to complete the probe as it needed to find out the documents.
However, experts otherwise smell a rat as allegations are ten a penny on RAJUK approving illegal housing plans, deviating from the master plan that is supposed to govern the expansion of Dhaka city. Though the RAJUK is supposed to be the saviour of Dhaka city, irregularities, inefficiency and indifference have turned RAJUK into a hub of corruption, where service seekers can acquire approvals in exchange for bribes.
We cannot but say that the RAJUK and corruption have become monotonous and synonymous terms. RAJUK has not yet become a people-friendly institution. As a regulatory entity, the RAJUK must protect the interest of its service seekers; it should not be a machine for producing illegal extra bucks for some unscrupulous dishonest officials.