Editorial
HC rule welcome on unauthorized advertising
Bring illegal housing projects to end
The High Court's recent ban on advertisement of unauthorized housing projects in print and electronic media is a move in the right direction. Slick advertisements in media have been a way with the real estate companies for courting clients regardless of the questionable nature of their land acquisition.
In an earlier rule in June 2011, the High Court declared illegal as many as 77 private housing projects and directed the government to bring down all under-construction buildings, and stop all earth-filling and plot-selling activities undertaken by real estate companies. The government, all too predictably, did nothing to address this.
Housing projects, needless to say, are of vital public concern what with the shrinking accommodation facilities in urban areas compounded with over-population. The growing demand for housing is being cashed in on by unscrupulous real estate companies who commit the even grosser crime of raising building on grabbed land, most of it being public land.
It is worthwhile to note that legal housing projects are outstripped three times the number of those of the illegal ones. Many fraudulent housing projects are alleged to have made their clients into paupers. As they operate outside the ambit of legal framework, their failure to comply with the BNBC, Dhaka Mahanagar Building Rule' 2008 and Real Estate Management and Development Act 2010, among others, is not accounted for.
In order to protect public interest and ensure business ethics in a vital sector, the government must act promptly to bring illegal housing projects to heel in line with the HC directive.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments