Not Just Dhaka, Every City in the Country Is Becoming Unliveable: Professor Adil Muhammad Khan
Urban planner Professor Adil Muhammad Khan has said that because local government institutions are being completely ignored in the process of formulating and implementing urban plans, every city in the country, including the capital Dhaka, is becoming unliveable.
He made the remarks on Saturday at an "Urban Dialogue" held at the CIRDAP auditorium in the capital. The dialogue was organised by the Urban Development Journalists Forum Bangladesh.
Professor Adil said bureaucracy-dependent development authorities are changing city plans without the opinions of local government or ordinary citizens. As a result, disorder and corruption are increasing in the cities, he said.
"We often think only Dhaka is becoming unliveable. But the reality is that the air and water quality in every city in the country, including Cumilla, Mymensingh, Gazipur and Narayanganj, is extremely poor. Every city is now struggling," he said.
Professor Adil said the role of local government is indispensable for building a developed city. Yet the country's city corporations and municipalities have been turned into agencies only for cleaning waste and killing mosquitoes. They have been given no partnership in formulating plans.
He alleged that since the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) was formulated in 2022, it has been amended three times in the past four years, but on no occasion were local government or the city corporations asked.
He said that even in an area where the infrastructure and utility services are suitable for buildings of five to six storeys, the development authority is approving 14-storey buildings without taking the opinions of local residents or local government. As a result, alongside light and air being blocked, waste management and civic services are collapsing.
Criticising the lack of coordination among agencies at the dialogue, Adil Muhammad Khan said one agency builds a road and another agency cuts it up without any coordination. Projects worth hundreds of crores of taka are implemented for a nominal permission fee, but local government has no control. In his view, this chaotic state is being kept alive essentially to create opportunities for corruption.
Highlighting the weakness of the local government system, he further said that because of partisan influence and the long absence of elected ward councillors, ordinary people's trust and confidence in local government has hit rock bottom. Civic services cannot be ensured by installing administrators, he also remarked.
The urban dialogue was chaired by Urban Development Journalists Forum President Matin Abdullah. Conducted by the organisation's General Secretary Hasan Emon, the dialogue was also addressed by senior journalist Amitosh Pal, planner Engineer Md. Nurullah and others.
