UNB, Cumilla :
Unplanned and unauthorised construction of multistoried risky buildings with substandard materials have become a serious threat to city dwellers.
Cumilla City Corporation (CuCC) has already identified such 700 risky structures in the city.
According to the CuCC Engineering Division, 495 buildings are being constructed without any approved designs while 195 without any approval. Besides, 95 buildings have been identified as dilapidated and risky ones.
Visiting various parts of the city, the UNB correspondent found rampant construction of buildings defying CuCC rules and without any approval. Sikder Anwara Castle, Swarna Kutir, Ananda Kanon are some of them.
Shikder Anwara Castle Fire Service failed to get permission from CuCC for not submitting necessary documents, including the certificate from the Department of Environment (DoE).
CuCC Assistant Deputy Engineer (Civil) Abdur Rab Bhuiyan said, “Sikder Anwara Castle is being constructed without any approval from CuCC and defying the building code. Legal notices were sent to them twice — on August 4 and October 24 – asking them to stop their construction work. But their construction works are still going on,” he said.
CuCC Mayor Monirul Haq Sakku said drives will be conducted after January 10 against unauthorised construction. “We’re in touch with the District Administration in this regard,” he added.
One worker was killed and 14 others were injured when the roof of the third floor of an under-construction building collapsed on December 27, 2019 in Kandirpar area of the city. Rupayan Group is constructing the building.
Additional District Magistrate Pintu Bepari said a four-member probe committee has been formed to look into the incident. “We’re investigating all the documents, including clearance certificate and plan of the under-construction building,” he said.
Mayor Sakku said although they did not get any approval initially from the City Corporation, Rupayan Group was given the clearance certificate for construction on that land when they came up with a High Court verdict in favour of them.
Sakku said they will start a drive in the city from January 10 against the developers who are constructing buildings without approval or without having any approved plan.
Rasulpur Liberation War memorial deserves special attention
During the Liberation War in 1971, more than 500 men and women were hauled in a group and forced to dig their own graves before they were shot dead by the Pakistani occupation force.
A memorial lacking the list of victims or a flag lifting platform was built at the site, located in a paddy field near Railway line of Rasulpur village in the Sadar upazila, in 2008 to remember the victims. After years of negligence, it now lies in almost ruins.
Local farmers use the memorial for drying paddy in day time while drug addicts use the site at night.
Freedom Fighter Nannu Chowdhury of Sector 2 said he remembers vividly how the Pakistani Army had brought a large number of youths there for killing.
“The youths were lined up and shot dead one after another. Later, their bodies were dumped in the mass grave,” he said, adding that wild animals and stray dogs had feasted upon the bodies.
Nannu said the delay in constructing the memorial and subsequent negligence is a matter of shame.
“We, the freedom fighters demand proper preservation of the memories of the martyrs,” he said.
Shafiul Ahmed Bablu, Former Commander of local Muktijoddha Sangsad, said the freedom fighters and the Pakistani army had fought a protracted battle in Rasulpur. “The defeated Pakistani forces indiscriminately killed the locals and dumped their bodies in mass grave,” he said.
Bablu said they had been requesting the local authorities for preserving the memorial. “The government has built a memorial but failed to honour it,” he said.
The people of Bangladesh joined the War of Independence responding to the call of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1971. During the War, the Pakistani army targeted nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, and religious minorities.
