City clean-up continues

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The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday evicted more than 300 hawkers from Karwan Bazar area.

Two teams of Rab-2 that had given an eviction notice to the market authority on Saturday went to Karwan Bazar yesterday and asked the hawkers to leave the market place. The hawkers followed the Rab directives.

Meanwhile, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) yesterday vacated the ground floor of the Dhanmondi branch of Meena Bazar, a chain supermarket, for violating the building design approved by Rajuk in 2001.

Rajuk sources said under the original design, the owner of Meena Bazar had an approval for the multi-storey building on Sat Masjid Road with its ground floor and basement to be used for car parking.

But the Meena Bazar authorities violated the rule by setting up the supermarket on the ground floor and using the basement as the store, the sources said.

Locals alleged that the market authorities arranged the car parking on the street, which would often cause traffic jam in the area.

They said Meena Bazar also had a sweetmeat shop on the walkway in front of it, creating obstacle to pedestrians.

A Meena Bazar staff said they removed all goods from the supermarket a couple of days ago following the Rajuk notice. The market also remained closed since then.

Rajuk Magistrate ASM Emdadud Dastagir also directed his men to demolish the concrete slope in front of the Meena Bazar building to revive the walkway.

The owner of Meena Bazar or anyone representing him refused to talk to The Daily Star in this regard.

Engineer Md Nurul Islam, one of the Rajuk authorised officers, said they have prepared a “long” list of violators of the Rajuk rules. “The [eviction] drive will continue on a regular basis,” he said.

Our correspondent in Gazipur meanwhile reported that army men conducted their eviction drive around Joydevpur Chowrasta and Tongi Station road, removing bus and tempo stoppages. This has significantly improved the traffic situation in the area.

The army also demolished the 1,250-foot long demarcation wall of Aventis Pharmaceuticals and hoardings of different business organisations along the east side of the Dhaka-Gazipur Highway.

They asked other small businesses to take away their illegal units and knocked down a few establishments, including an Awami League office.

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