Increase of population must be checked for better Dhaka: Taposh

Staff Reporter :
Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh on Wednesday said at a dialogue that civic problems would be intensify though his efforts of curbing it if population density cannot be controlled.
Urban Development Journalists’ Forum Bangladesh organized the event at the National Press Club in the capital.
Mayor Taposh said that Dhaka was not planned as the capital and there was no actual guardian of city
since the independence.
The mayors did only routine work while agencies did project based development works over the years which caused the sorry condition of the city.
“For the first time DSCC have a city plan to make the city loveable which is now on implementation,’ he said asking all not to adopt any plan that might increase city population.
He said that population was the main problem of the city to ensure better utilities.
Taposh said that to ease public sufferings during rainy season, DSCC did not allow any agencies in the city to dig any roads this year despite many applications and pressure.
He criticized the Economic Intelligence Unit report where Dhaka was ranked among top unlivable cities of the world as the EIU made the report on fabricated data.
He said that DSCC was supplying information to the authority and now Dhaka was improving.
Jahangirnagar University urban planning professor Akter Mahmud in his keynote presentation said that Dhaka bound migration, land ownership and management and land
crisis are major challenges for a good planning for the city.
He said that Dhaka still have the potentiality if a regional plan considering 50 km radius surrounding Dhaka can be implemented.
‘There are 15 urban centres in 50 km radius of Dhaka which can be shelter for many people,’ he said adding that there must have good transportation.
Bangladesh Institute of Planners president Fazle Reza Sumon said that there were some good plan but for the lack of regulation they did not give good outcome. He asked RAJUK to illegal control development in Dhaka.
‘Problem is not in plan but in implementation, sudden revisions,’ he said.
RAJUK chairman Md Anisur Rahman Miah said that RAJUKL has taken some projects to ensure better housing and transportation.
Among others Institute of Engineers Bangladesh’s General Secretary Shahadat Hossain, Institute of Architects Bangladesh General Secretary Farhana Sharmin and RAJUK’s Detailed Area Plan Project Director Md Ashraful Islam spoke the event.