No more unplanned buildings: Minister Rezaul Karim

No more unplanned buildings will be constructed from now on, Housing and Public Works Minister SM Rezaul Karim has said.

“I do not know what happened in the past. There will be no unplanned buildings from now on,” he said in response to a question at a review meeting on ‘Urban Resilience Project’ of Rajuk on earthquake at the Secretaries on Monday.

The minister warned that legal action would be taken against the owners who do not agree to dismantle their 'uninhabitable' and 'illegal' buildings. 

The government is working to identify such structures and will publish a list of risky buildings in and outside Dhaka within a month, he said.

 “The government has some plans. We are working to identify uninhabitable and risky buildings. Work has progressed. Once the process is finished, we will not accept any kind of obstruction in any case,” he said in response to a question about the unplanned buildings in Old Dhaka.

The government has also urged different organisations outside Dhaka to demolish buildings that violate the law.

Many such owners have taken advantage of legal loopholes as the notices issued to them lack clarity, said Karim.

“We will take steps to decide how to settle the cases quickly. We are sitting with RAJUK to discuss it.”

There are about 8,000 such cases in the court, according to the minister.