Editorial
Pavement encroachment
Thumbing nose at law
THE report and the accompanying picture in this newspaper yesterday depict yet another instance of flouting of rules by construction companies. A construction company building a shopping mall at Mouchak has encroached upon an entire stretch of the footpath on one of the busiest intersections of the city. It so happens that the majority of the directors of the shopping mall happen to be also directors of the construction company. How convenient! The construction is illegal, it having deviated from the approved design of the building.
Regrettably, flouting of rules and violation of laws have become so commonplace that the public, and those that suffer due to such excesses, have taken these as fait accompli, since, apparently, there is no one to address the violations.
Rajuk appears ludicrous when it says that it had served notice on the violators, not once but twice, and that it is waiting to serve a third notice and then declare the construction illegal. It appears that the directors of the shopping mall are all too powerful since they did not bother to respond to the Rajuk notices. And the state apparatus has been helpless in preventing the illegal construction.
Unfortunately, Fortuna Mall violation is symptomatic of the malaise that is eating into the moral fabric of the nation. We are concerned because it is exactly such disregard for law and failure of the oversight agencies to act timely that had caused the Rana Plaza disaster. And unless these errant construction companies are made examples of, Rana Plaza will continue to happen.
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