acta geographica serie b 8 dr nahiduzzaman

7/30/2019 Acta Geographica Serie B 8 Dr Nahiduzzaman

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Foredrag/Lectures

Kh. Md. Nahiduzzaman, Axel Baudouin and

Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan

THE MYTH AND REALITY OF HOUSING THE POOR

THROUGH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DHAKA

45th Annual Meeting of the Western RegionalScience Association, Santa F (USA)22. - 25. february 2006

Acta Geographica - Trondheim

Serie B, Nr. 8Series B, No. 8

Foredrag/LecturesTrondheim 2006

NTNU

Norgesteknisk-naturvitenska

pelige

universitet

Fakultetforsamfunnsvitenska

pogteknologiledelse

Geografiskinstitutt

I n n o v a t i o n a n d C r e a t i v i t y


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THE MYTH AND REALITY OF HOUSING THE POOR THROUGH

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DHAKA

Kh. Md. Nahiduzzaman1*

MPhil Student at the Dept. of Geography, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Axel Baudouin2

Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Md. Musleh Uddin Hasan3

Urban and Rural Planning Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

In response to the increased rate of urbanization, RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnnayan

Kartripakkhya), a capital development authority in Bangladesh, initiated a project

adopting the state-of-the-art spatial approach to growth as a strategy in its capacity as

the executive body responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Dhaka

Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP). In recognition of the importance of the plan

and in order to increase its implementability, public participation was considered one of

the most significant features in the DMDP. Further, public participation was considered

an inevitable part of the consideration of planning standards, including

recommendations at each stage from Structure Plan (SP) to Detail Area Plan (DAP). By

nature urban planning is a complex mix of socio-economic and political phenomena

which involves many theoretical aspects and at the same time there are associated

multifaceted factors in its implementation. In the past there have been many efforts at

planning and managing the urban areas in Dhaka, yet in most cases these efforts were

focused on planning without consideration of the rapid changes taking place in socio-

economic contexts, the strength and capacity of the public agencies concerned, or of the

resources required. This paper is an assessment of the extent of inclusion of the public

voice in the form of participation in the DAP, which is a reality on the ground. The DAPis an ongoing project, and based on a survey and interviews in the field this paper is an

1 E-mail: [email protected] , * corresponding author2 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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endeavour to identify the differences between theoretical practices as outlined in the

DMDP and the actual situation.

Keywords: public participation, structure plan, urban area plan, detail area plan

INTRODUCTION

The production of attractive and highly ambitious plans, whatever the type, is common

practice in Bangladesh, as in any other Third World country (Talukder & Newman,

2004). The more modern the planning approach, the more complex its methodology, and

the more spatial contexts involved, the more important sounding and rhetorical it

becomes. Concern for public participation, which is a key issue in current planning

philosophy, is of substantial importance in planning documents. With these reservations

in mind, this study seeks to review the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP).

Dhaka is a megalopolis the capital and largest metropolis of Bangladesh. Hence

Dhakas development plan is prone to sophisticated technical jargon and highly

ambitious targets. This is already found at the planning level, given what is stated in the

Structure Plan (SP) and Urban Area Plan (UAP) about the level and type of public

participation as compared with the way it is sought to be achieved in the Detail Area Plan

(DAP). In some cases, the way in which public voices are invited to be heard in the SP

and the way this has been executed in the DAP are apparently contradictory. However,

the degree, level and type of participation have not been documented properly in macro

planning documents. Sometimes, too, the issues on the ground have not been considered

properly. Therefore, when translating guidelines for public participation in the low-

income housing provisioning process in the SP into reality through the DAP the

conditions cannot be adequately fulfilled at the different stages of the housing

development process, such as site selection, tenure security, land development process,

housing standard determination etc. Thus, a vast gap remains between what is targeted

and what is achieved for housing people on low incomes. While revealing the gaps, this

study will also attempt to identify the flaws in the area of public participation in the

existing city development process. Based on first-hand data and existing literature it will

also seek to analyze the reality in order to identify the problems and prospects of

achieving an acceptable level of performance by ensuring public participation. As a

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consequence, this study will urge for careful designing of public participation schedules

and better implementation of the proposed and expected guidelines.

STUDY METHODS

This paper is based on the masters thesis ofKh. Md. Nahiduzzaman. In order to address

the issue of community participation in the DMDP both a semi-structured questionnaire

survey and the interviews were conducted using Duaripara slum area in Dhaka city as

case study. Sixty households were surveyed based on a non-random judgmental sampling

method. A questionnaire survey was conducted by dividing the total number of

households into three strata according to the main breadwinner in the households (Table

1). Different professionals from RAJUK, private land developers, the Centre for Urban

Studies, and private consulting firms were interviewed with the aid of interview guides.

Table 1. Distribution of sample size according to the nature of the household.

Household Sample size

Female-headed household 21

Male-headed household 30

Household where many people live together 9

Total 60

STUDY AREA: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Duaripara slum is located in the north-western part of Mirpur Thana in Dhaka City

Corporation (DCC). This slum area can be divided into two categories according to the

type of construction: row housing and hanging shelters. In the first case (row housing),

the DCC provides minimal infrastructural facilities, such as drainage, a hand pump tube-

well, and a herringbone bond (HBB) road, while in the latter case there are no such

facilities (Photograph 1).

Photograph 1: Row housing and hanging shelter in Duaripara slum

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Hanging shelters are built on canals, with their bamboo architecture resembling stilt

housing in the hilly areas of Bangladesh. The demographic information relating to the

study area is shown in table 2.

Table 2. Demographic information relating to the study area

No. of

households

Total population Area (acres) No. of wards

2400 11,500 10 6

Source:GOB (1996)

DMDP IN THE LIGHT OF HOUSING THE POOR AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Finding a solution to the shelter and housing problem for the urban population, especially

the poor, is one of the major elements in the DMDP. The preparation of both a structure

plan (policy oriented) and an urban area plan (mid-term strategies/recommendations)

requires continuous participation by the community, whereas the DAP (implementation

and reality on the ground) requires a strong and active participation at community level.

This section endeavours to assess the level of involvement and participation of the

stakeholders in providing housing facilities by analyzing the theories and different policy

options in three stages of the DMDP (Fig. 1).

Macro policy options Mid-term strategy

according to policies

Practice on the

ground/Reality

Structure Plan (1995-2015) Urban Area Plan (1995-2005) Detail Area Plan (2005-2015)

Figure 1: Three stages of the DMDP.

Structure Plan (1995-2015)

The Household and Expenditure Survey of 1988/89 recorded that 22.18% of Dhakas

urban population live at or below the absolute poverty level (as defined by the percentage

of population below the recommended calorie intake of 2122 kilocalories per person per

day), and a further 53.62% are defined as falling into the low income category, with

below 5000 Taka (74.63 USD4) per month. Of this total, it is estimated that 46.6% cannot

afford any improvement in quality of their housing. The survey also confirm that 93% of

all housing is provided through the private sector, of which 70% of all shelter is provided

4 1 USD = 67 Taka

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Study area

Main CBD,

administrative and

commercial core

Shahid Nagar

Basentek

Mohakhali

Agargaon

Kolabagan

MoghbazaKoral

Kamrangir Char Gopibag

Islambagh

GULSHANMIRPUR

KOTWALI

DHANMONDI

RAMNA

MOTIJHEL

MOHAMMADPUR

LALBAGH

SUTRAPUR

DEMRA

SABUJBAGH

CANTONMENT

TEJGAON

UTTARA

N

Map 1: Study area (Duaripara) in context of Dhaka Metropolitan area

Source: Survey of slum and squatter settlements in Dhaka city

Final report prepared by Centre for Urban Studies (CUS), Dhaka for Urban Poverty Reduction Project

(UPRP) (ADB TA 2410-BAN), sponsored by Asian Development Bank (ADB), 1996

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by the informal private sector, in which the majority are individual owner builders

(DMDP, 1995). In this respect, it is important to mention what is recommended under the

heading of Shelter and Housing in the SP: the SP proposes that the Government should

only intervene in an enabling capacity in the following ways:

Land Remove existing impediments in the supply, transfer and regulations of land for

shelter; Facilitating Actions Introduce supporting actions designed to increase the

operations of land and housing markets in favour of the majority of low to moderate

income households; Environmental Impact Introduce supporting actions designed to

minimize the impact of the shelter sector on environmental conditions, maintain basic

public health and minimize the impacts of natural hazards on shelters.

This enabling approach assumes a clear understanding of the comparative advantages and

roles and consistent participation of the public and private formal and informal sectors at

each stage of the development cycle of policy making, planning, design, implementation,

and evaluation.

Urban Area Plan (1995-2005)

Based on the SP, more specific recommendations have been given in the UAP, which are

briefly listed here in order to show the provision for public participation under the

heading Shelter and Housing. The total urban population was fragmented into 5

percentiles, according to monthly income, in order for more specific and practical

recommendations to be made (DMDP, 1995):

0-10 percentile

An analysis of the income (and expenditure) of the Dhaka households reveals that the

first 10 percentile groups earn so little that they barely survive. Their daily activities are

focused on bringing in enough money for food from odd jobs, begging and

collecting/selling waste, to ensure that they stay alive. They sleep in the streets since they

cannot afford to pay for shelter.

Recommendations for this percentile

Provision of a night shelter, sanitary facilities and food handouts against some services to

be rendered by this group.

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10-30 percentile

The next 20 percentile group (10-30) survives, but has no savings since all additional

income is spent on clothing, health, education, and housing. The housing is nothing more

than shade either constructed traditionally (e.g., made of thatch/straw, bamboo, mud etc.)

or from waste materials on vacant plots of less than 10 m2. Despite being squatters they

often have to pay rent or levies in order to be allowed to stay. The residential areas are

often located on sites that are either hazardous (along railway tracks), dangerous (flood

prone), or unhealthy (next to waste dumps).


It is recommended that there is a reduction in the levies paid by introducing or

guaranteeing some form of secure tenure and also by encouraging and facilitating

community participation in the provision, operation and maintenance of an affordable

level of basic services provision and access. This approach is likely to create a sense of

ownership on the part of the community and to provide a platform for improvements in

living standards and environmental conditions. By designing specific sites of new urban

land for this group, in suitable and accessible locations in the urban fringe, the number of

existing sites, which are often unhealthy, hazardous and dangerous, may be reduced

gradually and eventually eliminated altogether.

30-50 percentile

The next 20 percentile (30-50) are above the seriously poor and may have some savings

that can be used to improve their living conditions. They require safety for their

investments and small upgrading loans. Experience in Bangladesh and elsewhere

suggests that given the right political and institutional framework and motivation this

group is capable of organizing itself in community and neighbourhood groups, and in

mobilizing community resources and effort. Through partnership with municipal, district

and public sector (and private sector) infrastructure and community and social services

delivery agencies, this group is capable of the implementation, operation and

maintenance of tertiary levels of infrastructure and community and social provision. The

Government should promote and support these initiatives by providing technical

knowledge, design services, and/or site supervision, as well as food for work incentives,

as appropriate.

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The Government should acquire land in the fringe areas, or elsewhere, if deemed

affordable, and by land filling to between 1 and 1.5 metres below high water level to

make available a range of subsidized plots (10-20m2) with secure tenure.

50-70 percentile

Those that fall within this group are able to acquire small plots and to develop their

shelters gradually from shacks into small but permanent structures. This process is

ongoing on a large scale but has a very long implementation time, according to the

findings recorded in the field surveys under the land control study.


In the urban fringe areas, or elsewhere if deemed affordable, a range of options exist,

from improved site and services and guided land development to the land

consolidation scheme. Improved site and services, and guided land development

schemes should be envisaged for new populations moving into the area, while the land

consolidation scheme would facilitate adjustment or regularization of existing small

and/or irregular plot boundaries, resulting in developable plots. Housing loans on

preferential interest and repayment terms would further induce earlier development and

have a beneficial impact on the labour market and economy by increasing income

generation and job opportunities.

70-100 percentile

For the 70 percentile upwards the market is open for the formal development schemes by

RAJUK and by the private sector. With the present schemes ofDhanmondi, Mirpur,

Gulshan, andBaridhara, as well as some smaller ones, this section is already well served.

The slow development ofUttara is indicative of the saturation of the upper market.


Since this section of the population is capable of meeting its own housing requirements

the role of the public sector should be reduced to one of moderator or manager by

providing at-cost major off-site infrastructure and by setting building standards and

planning regulations that should be met. In some cases, adjacent lower income

settlements may be served by the infrastructure of these formal developments (cross

subsidy).

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Detail Area Plan (2005-2015): implementation on the ground

The DAP is primarily concerned with the implementation of the recommendations in

reality, as presented in the UAP. Based on the evidence (both primary and secondary

data) collected during the field visit, this section focuses on the critical aspects of

implementation at ground level. The recommendations in the UAP can be summarized as

shown in table 3

Table 3. Summary of the recommendations in UAP

Focal terms for recommendation Target group

i. Secure tenure and communityparticipation

ii. Relocation in the urban fringeareas

10-30 percentile of the urban population

i. Land acquisition in the urbanfringe areas

ii. Subsidized plots with securetenure


i. Adoption of different landdevelopment techniques such as

site and services schemes, landreadjustment (LR), guided land

development (GLD)


Tenure security, land acquisition and relocation in the urban fringe a myth?

When discussing with one of the urban planners from RAJUK it was revealed that

RAJUK has no land banking provision to meet future needs or to face the challenge of

rapid urbanization. On the contrary, sometimes with either government or donor funds, it

acquires land when any project is on the verge of inception. This is seemingly

contradictory because development organizations such as RAJUK should have a land

bank scheme so that when needed, they could access the required amount of land without

facing any land litigation problems, landownership disputes, and without paying

exorbitant rates per unit of land.

Community participation and adoption of land development techniques how far?According to urban planners from RAJUK, in the issue of community participation it is

more a question of rhetoric than a reality because a very few meetings have been

arranged with only the members from the Union Parishad5 (who are elected for a certain

5 In the rural areas the hierarchy of administrative unit is: Thana/Upazila Parishad Union Parishad

Village.

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period) and without any participation from the grass roots level, such as villagers6

or

people from the urban fringes. Very strong and consistent participation of the

stakeholders is required when a project is about to be started and where there is a

question about the application of land development techniques such as land readjustment

(LR) or guided land development (GLD), etc. For this kind of participation there is a

requirement for an upgraded inventory of landowners. In the format of financial proposal

under the terms of reference for five private consulting firms for executing the DAP,

there is a requirement to prepare a new inventory for the landowners within the RAJUK

jurisdiction. Apparently, this is a very tedious and time-consuming job as most of the

litigations are landownership related (Chowdhury, 1992), and each consulting firm has

been given a 2-year time period for the accomplishment of segments of the DAP that they

have been assigned. When talking to an urban planner-cum-GIS expert of Sheltech

Consultant Pvt. Limited, it emerged that a landownership inventory is only being

prepared with GIS mapping in some parts of the DMDP area, and in these cases there is

an attempt to be more technical in approach by using GIS software and modern

equipment, etc., rather than to produce a complete and upgraded inventory. Although

there is a clear depiction of the cost for preparing land development techniques and

community participation (DMDP, 1995), surprisingly there is no such effort at the

execution level. At this point in the discussion the following questions may be raised:

i. Why is community participation almost absent even at the execution level of theDMDP?

ii. It is an open secret that the preparation of a new and upgraded inventory oflandowners is very difficult, time consuming, and a high cost recursive job. At the

same time, the land inventory is the most important standard for implementing land

development techniques. The question is then why different techniques for land

development for different percentiles of people have been proposed in the UAP

whenever preparation of the landownership inventory is almost impossible

(considering time and funds). Even when Government has the landownership

inventory, questions may arise, such as how far stakeholders will agree to participate

6 Some rural areas fall under DMDP jurisdiction.

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in the process of land development techniques. This warrants a further comprehensive

study.

iii. Whenever community participation is almost absent, there is lack of informationconcerning the stakeholders attitude regarding this kind of participation. This raises

the question of how it may be feasible to execute and implement different land

development techniques for the different percentile of urban population.

iv. The urban poor are extremely mobile. In the implementation process it isproposed to relocate the 10-30 and the 30-50 percentiles of urbanites to the fringe

areas. The question is whether this proposition fits with the mobility behaviour of the

urban poor.

POLITICIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF RAJUK

The organizational structure of RAJUK is hierarchical and the chairman holds supreme

power and authority in all decision-making activities (Husain, 1988). The next person in

the structure, in terms of power and authority, is the member and there are five categories

of member in five divisions: i. Member (Administration and Land), ii. Member (Estate),

iii. Member (Finance), iv. Member (Development), and v. Member (Planning). The most

noticeable thing is that these high commanding posts are appointed politically by the

ruling government party for a limited period of time. Most of the members are non-

professionals and they may not have enough expertise to execute their assigned

responsibilities (Husain, 1988). The chairman and members have connections with the

ruling government party and it is regarded as a privilege or a kind of reward to hold such

strategic positions.

Political pressure continues to play a vital role in sustaining corruption in Bangladesh

(Almas Zakiuddin, 2002). Due to politicization, the officials are somehow bound to

satisfy those politicians who are responsible for recruiting them. The results of a survey

for a sociological study on corruption found that 62% of respondents believed that the

primary responsibility for corruption in Bangladesh lay in the hands of government

officials (Almas Zakiuddin, 2002). Corruption in Bangladesh: a household survey,

released on 20 April 2005, revealed that incidences of corruption are highest in land

administration, the police and the lower judiciary.7 Based upon the discussion and

7http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/documents/HouseholdSurvey200405-sum1.pdf(accessed 7 October 2005)

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http://www.ti-bangladesh.org/documents/HouseholdSurvey200405-sum1.pdfhttp://www.ti-bangladesh.org/documents/HouseholdSurvey200405-sum1.pdf


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evidence presented above, matters such as land acquisition and community participation,

etc. can be summarized as follows:

i. In cases of acquisition for a project, RAJUK has to pay an exorbitant amount ofmoney per unit of land compared to existing prices in the land market. Here it can be

assumed that the members of RAJUK have some kind of business dealings with the

landowners, land developers, and others.

ii. In some cases such as land acquisition or in any plan/project where a substantialamount of money is involved and when business dealings may be a major concern for

the high-level employees of government bodies such as RAJUK, community

participation becomes least important and sometimes even a myth.

URBAN HOUSING AND MOBILITY PATTERN OF THE URBAN POOR

The urban poor have little access to urban land and they mostly build their houses on

vacant private and government land and thereby become squatters in the city. Most are

living in self-constructed houses, known locally as jupri. These houses are made of low

cost housing materials such as Corrugated Iron sheet bamboo, straw, and polythene and

are highly vulnerable during the rainy season. Only 18% of the poor households in Dhaka

city are living in semi-structured houses with permanent walls (Hossain, 2004). The

overwhelming majority (73.8%) of these poor urban dwellers customarily live in one-

room houses. In many cases, more than five members of the households live in one

congested room (Hossain, 2004). In some households it is also not uncommon for people

to live in appalling conditions, with 20 to 30 people living in a single room. Most of the

poor have no individual access to the citys water supply and they collect drinking water

from a common municipal tap or from hand-pumped tube-wells. More than 65% of the

households have no access to sewerage systems and share temporary pit latrines that they

dig themselves or they use open drains beside the roads (Hossain, 2004).

The urban poor are highly mobile in nature. The dimension and pattern of their mobility

depends highly on close proximity (within 2-3 Km) to their workplaces (field survey

2005). The average duration of stay in the Duaripara slum was found to be 0.5-1 years for

female-headed households and 1-2 years for male-headed households. One of the main

reasons for such short periods of stay may be related to job insecurity and also the options

to switch to the same kind of jobs in other locations (field survey, 2005). Most of the

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household members of Duaripara slum area work in the garment factories, which are

within walking distance. There are many big garment factories very close by and this is

one of the main reasons for the development of such a big slum area (Image 1). With

regard to shelter and housing, when the issue of community participation arises,

consideration of the mobility behaviour of the slum dwellers is of prime concern. The

UAP recommends relocation of the urban poor settlements to secure tenures in the fringe

areas and in this regard it is most important to know about the opportunity to settle down

in the urban fringes, the mobility behaviour of the urban poor, and associated factors

resulting this mobility pattern, since behaviour and associated factors are of significance

for the following reasons:

i. To formulate the strategies in order to ensure maximum participation from the slumcommunity

ii. To recommend spatial choice as a solution to the housing and shelter problem.In the DMDP there is no such study on the mobility patterns of the urban poor which can

be used as a basis for determining the locational choice of housing and hence the

economic value of such choices. How, then, can it be feasible to recommend

conventional community participation without having an idea of the nature of their

mobility?

DONOR ASSISTANCE

The DMDP, which is under the project of Preparation of Structure Plan, Master Plan

and Detail Area Plans for Dhaka, is one of the UNDPs aided projects implemented in

co-operation with UNCHS/HABITAT in Dhaka (DMDP, 1995). This is a five year

project with a total project cost of Tk 1613.86 lac (2.41 millions USD), of which the

UNDP contribution is Tk 1381.40 lac (2.06 millions USD), which is 85.6% of the total

amount (DMDP, 1995). For any kind of large-scale local government development

project, such as development authorities, city corporations, municipalities, etc., donor

agencies almost always have a major contribution. Municipalities with larger special

grants and that are covered under different donor-driven projects allocate large portions

of expenditure onphysical infrastructure, a compulsory component of such

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Image 1: Location of study area and garment factories (Source: IWM, 2003)

LEGEND

Row housing Hanging shelter

Garment factories Distance from the slum (2-3 Km.)

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projects. Most of the larger local governments new infrastructure development is

financed through foreign aid and government grants. Urban government owned funds for

the majority of the bodies are not even sufficient for the maintenance of existing

infrastructure (Chowdhury, 2004). There is much more evidence of donors contribution

as development assistance for addressing and solving existing and emerging urban issues.

An inventory of such funding in different projects since 1992 is presented in Table 4

below. With regard to the responsibilities of the donors, past evidence shows they only

have interest on annual or periodical monitoring or interim reports.

Table 4. Projects undertaken through donors funding.

Project title Project cost in

million USD

Donor agency Implementation

period

No. and

municipal unit

Progress

Slum improvement project

(1st

phase)

3.63 UNICEF 1988-96 4 City

corporations, 21Municipalities

100%

Secondary Town

Infrastructure

Improvement Project I

32.4 ADB 1992-2000 10 Municipalities 100%

Rehabilitation of

Infrastructure of Towns

affected by 1998 Flood


Secondary Town Flood

Protection

19.77 ADB 1992-1998 5 Municipalities, 1

City Corporation

100%

Urban Basic Service

Delivery

5.55 UNICEF 2001-2002 22 Municipalities 100%

Technical Assistance forpreparation of Urban

Governance &

Improvement of

Infrastructure


Secondary Town

Infrastructure

Improvement Project II

56.9 ADB 1996-2003 2 City

Corporations

94%

Municipal Services

Project

100.77 World Bank 1999-2003 2 City Corporation 45%

Urban Poverty Alleviation

through Local

Participation

22.44 UNDP &

UNICEF

1999-2006 3 City

Corporations

8 Municipalities

11%

Urban Governance &

Improvement of

Infrastructure Project

73.88 ADB 2002-2008 22 Municipalities Ongoing

Source: Chowdhury (2004)

MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

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The skewed landownership pattern in Dhaka city where the planning agency RAJUK has

very little control may be addressed as transposition of a feudal system upon the modern

urban fabric. In order to have a minimal degree of tenure security the slum dwellers have

been paying rent to those who subsequently control the slums. Plans such as the DMDP

may be only undertaken to adopt Western ideology, in order to show the level of

modernity the country has but without any attempt to apply to the socio-economic,

institutional and political contexts. This may be seen merely an attempt to mislead the

experts, donors and monitoring bodies in the effort to secure a significant amount of

money through development cooperation. The question should be asked whether the plan

for itself and whether it is for modernity?

It has been repeatedly said that the urban poor were to be relocated in the fringe areas,

depending upon the percentile they belong to, which means that the urban core areas are

saturated and no more areas are left for further development. There is a movement

leading towards an apparent social and geographical segregation between the people in

the city core and poor in the urban fringe. Thus, in fact, there may not have been any

attempt to concretize the principles of the plan.

The executive public body concerned, RAJUK, is responsible for the preparation and

implementation of the DMDP. According to the roles it has played at the execution level,

specific questions about the efficiency of this organization and its officials can be raised

when major components in the document such as community participation are almost

absent. When there is no land banking provision, an absence of basic studies such as the

attitude of the urbanites towards adoption of land development techniques, mobility

behaviour of the urban poor, and absence of important and upgraded land information

such as its ownership inventory, not only are the development goals difficult to attain,

they are not even attempted. The urban poor do have some degree of agency which has

been acknowledged and documented in the plan but this has been ignored in the

implementation phase. Overall, based on the discussions above and while attempting to

measure the gap between the myth and reality of the DMDP, should we perhaps describe

the total phenomenon as organized inefficiency?

REFERENCES

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Almas Zakiuddin (2002). Corruption in Bangladesh: An Analytical and Sociological

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URLhttp://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan004881.pdf

(accessed 8 October 2005).

Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) and Dhaka for Urban Poverty Reduction Project (UPRP)

(1996). Survey of Slum and Squatter Settlements in Dhaka City. Dhaka, sponsored by

Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Chowdhury, Amirul Islam (1992), Urban land market in Bangladesh. Islam, Nazrul &

Chowdhury, Amirul Islam (eds.) Urban Land Management in Bangladesh. Dhaka,

Ministry of Land, Government of the Poples Republic of Bangladesh.

Chowdhury, Amirul Islam (2004). Instruments of Local Financial Reform and their

Impact on Service Delivery: Institutional and Development Concerns Case Studies

of India and Bangladesh. [WWW document]. URL

http://www.saneinetwork.net/pdf/SANEI_VI/Instr%20of%20Local%20Fin%20Reform

.pdf(accessed 9 October 2005).

DMDP (1995). Structure Plan, Master Plan, and Detailed Area Plan for Dhaka City.

Volumes I & II. Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka,

Bangladesh.

GoB (1996). Urban Poverty Reduction Project. LGED, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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