Relocation of educational institutions in DRA

Alarge number of educational institutions in Dhanmondi Residential Area (DRA) have been given notice to shift elsewhere by the Dhaka South City Corporation. And they had been given seven days time to do so. And the concern this has caused to the parents, students and the respective schools and college administration therein is not unjustified. The order is of course in conformity with the High Court ruling of 2012 which directed that the residential are of Dhanmondi should not be commercialized. And the Ruling has been upheld by the Supreme Court very recently.

However, all the institutions served notice have been there, in the unauthorised areas, for a long time and we believe that they could not have been there without permission of the relevant authorities. And they did not come up in a day. Would we be remiss to ask why permission was given in the first place knowing that it was violating the rules? The argument proffered by DSCC that licenses were given due to a "fault in the system" is absurd. 

It is true that the pristine character of a residential area should not be marred and no commercial ventures should be allowed except in locations specified within the residential area. And the move by the authorities to ensure that is justified. However, it is not merely the question of relocation of a school or a college, which in itself is a time consuming process, it also involves the interest of a large number of students. Given that, we hope the city corporations would allow a reasonable time to these institutions to react.