The Rajdhahi Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK) on Wednesday started a laudable initiative to remove illegal structures at different parts of the capital to discourage people not to construct structures that violate rules. In the capital, there are innumerable examples where the plan originally permitted by RAJUK is not followed in construction which makes the city grow in an illegal and haphazard fashion. While this trend of flouting the plan makes the visual presentation of a relevant construction not pleasing to look at, this also turns the construction weak and vulnerable to earthquake.
If the concerned authorities, most importantly RAJUK, continuously make this kind of drive, then it can be expected the people with this bad habit will one day become aware of the necessity of following rules in building construction. But the ground reality is that this kind of drive is made few and far between and, as a result, people feel less discouraged to violate rules. It is understandable that the government has little resources to conduct prolonged drives, but there is apparently no effort to increase the manpower of conducting mobile courts continuously for addressing this kind of violation of rules. But in a country like ours the necessity of conducting mobile courts can hardly be overemphasized because people in general do not show eagerness to follow rules. This is not only about construction - everywhere one can spot this tendency.   
According to a report of this newspaper, in the recent case RAJUK authorities conducted their drives against several illegal structures that included guest houses, hotels, bars and some other commercial entities deviated from their approved plans. In Dhanmondi, the mobile court fined the private Difam Hospital Tk 200,000 and ordered it remove the additional floor it built illegally at its rooftop to accommodate nurses. At Mirpur, Al Helal Hospital was fined TK. 100,000 for building an illegal oxygen plant at its basement. According to the report, the Cambridge Business and Law Academy at road 18 in Dhanmondi was given notice to remove it from the place within three days.
All these efforts are praiseworthy, but if RAJUK wants to see real change in people’s habit of violating rules in construction, it will have to continue these efforts and the government has to increase budget in this regard to increase manpower of mobile courts. Only through protracted and sustainable efforts, people can be forced to abide by rules.