Shahin Akhter
An Appellate Division stay order continues to prevent both Dhaka City Corporation and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha from removing unauthorised rooftop hoardings in the city which many consider dangerous to public safety.
DCC executive magistrate Khalil Ahmed says, apart from being unauthorised, many billboards continue to pose a risk to the general public although the last reported fatal incident of crash took place more than a year ago, on March 15, 2010, which left two people killed.
'The city currently has about 3,000 hoardings,' he said. 'According to the corporation's advertising policy, there can be a maximum of 20 hoardings along a one-kilometre stretch of road. Yet, sometimes stretches of road of that length have more than 200 hoardings each.'
Section 5 of the DCC advertising policy says that without the corporation's permission no advertising board can be installed on a wall or the roof of a government, semi-government, autonomous, non-governmental or public authority building or on a DCC-owned land or structure.
At present, the DCC's waste management department has been assigned to give permission to different government and non-governmental organisations to set up hoardings and collect revenue.
Asaduzzaman, an official of the DCC waste management department, said, according to a survey of the corporation conducted in 2010, the city had 1,800 rooftop hoardings.
He said about 1,000 rooftop hoardings in the capital had permission, with 596 of them installed on land or structures owned by the government or its related bodies and 436 on corporation land.
Asaduzzaman also said the corporation could give permission so that only hoardings having a structural design certificate issued by the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh could be put up.
The corporation's law officer, Mohammad Mofizul Islam, said a corporation officer could remove illegal billboards and other objects from the corporation area by using the power afforded by the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1943 and the Mobile Court Act 2009.
However, DCC's chief waste management officer Bipan Kumar Saha told New Age that a High Court order allowing removal of the hoardings had been stayed by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Imtiaz Mahmood, a lawyer who represents the Outdoor Advertising Owners' Association, confirmed that the DCC indeed was facing a legal barrier in removing the hoardings.
OAOA president Rafiqul Islam on December 10, 2007 filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging a RAJUK notice which asked certain building owners and advertising firms to immediately remove all unauthorised rooftop hoardings. The High Court issued a stay order on the RAJUK notice.
Then, following a collapse of a billboard on March 15, 2010 in front of Gulshan Shopping Centre, which resulted in the death of two people and injuries to eight, the High Court directed the DCC to start removal of all unauthorised hoardings immediately in the capital except those protected by the 2007 High Court stay order.
The court asked the inspector general of police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, and Shahbagh Police Station officer-in-charge to extend full cooperation to the DCC authorities in removing the hoardings.
On April 29, 2010, the High Court lifted the stay order obtained by the OAOA, stating that no law would be violated if the hoardings were removed to protect peoples' lives and property.
Imtiaz told New Age that the next month the association sought leave to appeal against the ruling and the chamber judge of the Appellate Division imposed a stay on the High Court order, pending the disposal of the appeal.
The OAOA secretary general Hazi Mohammad Rashed told New Age that the appeal was still pending with the Appellate Division, adding that their demand was morally correct as, according to the Dhaka Metropolitan City's Beautification and Advertisement Policy-2009, rooftop hoardings were not illegal.
He said the DCC collected revenue from the owners of rooftop hoardings. 'Everything is possible in Bangladesh,' he quipped.
Source: New Age
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