More than 65% of the capital's footpaths remain illegally occupied as authorities of the two city corporations and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police paid little attention to a High Court order to free the pathways for pedestrians.
Sources at the Dhaka North and South City Corporation told the Dhaka Tribune that around 108 kilometers of a total of 163 kilometres in walkways in the capital had been occupied in various ways by street hawkers, vendors and permanent shops.
Saying that the occupiers were being backed up by influential politicians of different associate bodies of the ruling party, they further added that around 600 kilometres out of 2,300 kilometres of roads in the capital had been illegally occupied by encroachers.
A study conducted by Work for Better Bangladesh (WBB) in 2011 revealed that only 18% of the capital's existing footpaths were suitable for walking while the rest remained unusable due to car parkings, hawkers, vendors and wastes.
On February 26, 2012, the High Court in a verdict asked the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) to take step against any encroachment on most of the city footpaths. Despite such directives from the country's apex court, the DSCC authority took no noticeable steps to free the city's walkways, giving encroachers the opportunity to continue their business illegally.
Bangladesh Hawkers Federation President MA Kashem told the Dhaka Tribune that some 2.5 lakh hawkers in the capital had being paying daily tolls to politically-backed extortionists to run their business on the streets.
“The hawkers at the city’s centre points, such as Farmgate, have been paying a monthly toll or daily tolls as much as Tk50,” he added.
“Considering that, street vendors pay around Tk37.5 crore as toll per month to these politically-backed extortionists. Not just the political leaders, even law enforcers of local police stations are also involved with the rackets.” said Kashem.
However, Dhaka city unit Awami League acting president MA Aziz brushed off the allegations and said organisational actions would be taken against anyone found guilty of extorting.
Besides, there are about 350 footpath stalls in the Motijheel area. According to some of the owners, they cumulatively pay around Tk15 lakh every month.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, National Hawkers Federation president Arif Chowdhury said several bodies of hawkers had repeatedly asked the government to introduce a legal payment system so that they do not have to pay toll to the extortionists.
“The government is losing crores in revenue due to a lack of enforcement of rules and regulations [for governing footpath business],” he added.
DSCC Chief Executive Officer Md Ansar Ali Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “We often clear the footpaths by conducting raids, but the occupiers come back every time. Only police can take action against such activities.”
Similarly, DNCC Chief Executive BM Enamul Haque said: “We will investigate the matter and take steps against such illegal occupiers.”
DMP Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said: “Police is not a person but an organisation. There can be complaints against one or two of its members but that does not mean the entire organisation has been involved.”
He further promised to take actions after investigating whether any police member was found involved with such extortion activities.
