Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) mayor Annisul Huq yesterday directed shopkeepers and vendors to clear the pavements of encroachments in the next seven days. Otherwise, after March 10, DNCC mobile teams would initiate legal action against the encroachers, the mayor told a meeting, arranged by the DNCC, held to exchange views at the Gulshan Club ‘on the role of businessmen in mitigating the woes of the citizens’. Leaders of the associations of different markets and shop-owners participated in the meeting. DNCC councillors and officials were also present there. The mayor told the shop-owners that most of them—of the one-and-a-half lakh shops in North Dhaka as well as those in the markets—keep their wares on the streets and pavements. Even ovens of restaurants are kept there. Yet, none of them has any authority to occupy even an inch beyond their allotted space.
“You cannot keep your goods on an inch of space outside your allotted space. You would be the loser if you go in for legal tangles. The DNCC does not want to go in for legal action. So take away your goods on your own,” the mayor urged the shopkeepers. Speaking on the occasion, the president of the shop-owners’ association of Banani, Gulshan and Mohakhali, Nurul Islam, observed that it was difficult to move down the footpaths as they are mostly occupied by shop-owners. “They should be served notices. The businesses would cooperate in removing their wares and help clear the roads and pavements,” Islam added. Annisul Huq also said, “Every day, 2,500 tonnes of garbage are generated in the Dhaka North areas. Of this quantity, refuse from the shops amounts to 700 to 800 tonnes. This occurs mainly because shop-owners dump their garbage in the daytime at every nook and corner. Instead of doing this, set up dustbins of your own where you can dump your garbage. The refuse would be collected by the DNCC at a specific time of the day.”