Six Decades On, Cumilla Housing Estate Turned Commercial: Shops and Markets on Residential Plots, Field and Pond Left Unprotected

The Cumilla Housing Estate was built for the planned housing of people from different walks of life, including government officers and employees. The plan was for houses on residential plots, with wide roads, a playground, water bodies and civic amenities. But more than six decades later, shops and markets have sprung up in that planned housing area. Offices of government and private organisations, drug rehabilitation centres and warehouses for goods are operating in residential buildings.

The housing estate occupies about 103 acres in the city of Cumilla. The project, established in 1961-62, has 560 plots in four sections. Of them, 20 are commercial and three are industrial plots; the rest are residential. Yet a visit to the area showed one commercial structure after another being built on residential plots.

On both sides of the main road in Section 4 alone there are at least 36 shops, large and small. Rows of shops line both sides of the main road from the Tomchom Bridge-Medical College road towards Nurpur, from tea stalls to permanent markets. There are also super shops, warehouses of different companies, government offices and a drug rehabilitation centre. Shops have also been built on the ground floors of residential buildings.

On a residential plot opposite the Section 4 Jame Mosque, seven shops have been built in the style of a shopping arcade. The shops have been rented out. Zarina Begum, who identified herself as the wife of the plot owner, said there were no shops there before. Many people had built shops; seeing them, they made a market too. During construction, no one from the National Housing Authority stopped them or served any notice, she said.

A market has also been built on a residential plot at Golmarket, the junction of Sections 1 and 2 of the housing estate. A market of 14 shops has come up on a residential plot at the entrance to the field. It houses restaurants, coffee shops, tea stalls and various businesses.

Kamal Hossain, who is involved in building that market, said when contacted: 'I have put up shops, I will put up more. Do not call me about this again. I do not need any permission to raise a structure.'

In the middle of the housing estate is a water body locally known as Laua Dighi, with the playground beside it. But the banks of the pond are overgrown with bushes. The field has no boundary wall or maintenance arrangement. During the day cattle graze there and people learn to drive; after evening, outsiders and young people gather there. Local residents allege that drugs are also taken there. Incidents of mugging have also occurred on nearby roads at night.

Md Anwarul Haque, a resident of Section 3, said burglaries had taken place in three flats of his building in a row in the past month. There are no gates or security guards at the entrances. He said: 'On paper there is a police outpost here, but it does not function. As a result we have to live with the fear of theft, mugging and other crimes.'

Umme Salma has lived there for about five years. She alleged that shops coming up on residential plots and on ground floors of buildings were ruining the area's beauty, and that there was no environment for sports on the field.

The City Corporation says roads and waste management are its responsibility, while controlling commercial structures on residential plots is the responsibility of the National Housing Authority. Housing Authority officials say effective action cannot be taken because of a staff shortage and the absence of an executive magistrate.

An employee of the National Housing Authority's Cumilla sub-division, speaking on condition of anonymity, said construction work could not be stopped even with notices. He said: 'Commercial structures are going up one after another without following the rules. We try to stop them by serving notices, but construction continues, ignoring the notices. The matter then has to be reported to the head office of the National Housing Authority. In my long career I have never seen an executive magistrate come from Dhaka and take action.'

Md Abu Saeed, sub-divisional engineer of the National Housing Authority in Cumilla, said the matter of commercial structures on residential plots and shops built by occupying roads had come to their attention. But regular monitoring and action are difficult because of the staff shortage. He said: 'We do not have our own executive magistrate. To evict illegal structures, we have to collect field-level information and send a proposal to the head office. Eviction can be carried out once an executive magistrate is appointed after approval. Because of the long process, construction often finishes before action can be taken.' He described their situation as being a soldier with neither shield nor sword. He said proposals for eviction would be sent to the head office after inspecting the sections concerned in order to act against the illegal structures.

Cumilla City Corporation administrator Md Yusuf Molla said most of the roads in the housing estate had been repaired and work on the rest was continuing. Initiatives would also be taken to solve the problems of street lights, garbage and bushes. On the other hand, Md Touhidul Anwar, officer-in-charge of Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station, said the police outpost building was almost abandoned and neither the police station nor the district police had the money to repair or rebuild it. Information about outsiders and drug users gathering on the field reaches them, raids are often conducted there and the raids will continue, he said.