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The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) has decided to build its own office premises across the country, after years of paying rent for most of its 107 units.
The DNC currently operates in 64 districts but owns office buildings in only six of them. The remaining offices function from rented premises, costing the Exchequer a huge amount of money every month.
So, the DNC has decided to construct the remaining offices on its own land, rather than continue renting. Mostafizur Rahman, deputy director (purchase, planning and development) of the DNC, confirmed this to the Daily Sun.
As a first step, the DNC headquarters has instructed district offices without their own premises to identify and select suitable land on a priority basis for new office buildings.
In a directive issued on 20 September, the department said: “Many districts currently have no dedicated DNC offices. In light of this, the department has undertaken an initiative to construct office buildings in those districts on its own land. As a first step, district offices without their own premises have been directed to identify suitable land for the proposed construction.”
Offices have been told to look first for government-owned (khas) land. Failing that, they may consider privately owned plots of at least one acre, provided the land is close to a town or urban centre.
Any privately owned land under consideration must be fallow or under single-crop cultivation, and free from legal disputes, ownership claims and encroachment or unauthorised occupation.
District offices have been given seven working days to submit the required documentation.
Mohammad Golam Azam, additional director general of the DNC, said that they have instructed their offices to provide information on the land. After that, they will submit the matter to the home ministry, which will take a decision on the construction.
He was unable to say how much the department currently spends on office rent nationwide.
According to the DNC, it was established in 1990 with 1,277 staff across 41 offices. It now employs 2,605 personnel across 107 units nationwide.
The department has placed offices at key transit points, including land ports, seaports and airports, to strengthen surveillance and interdiction along major trafficking routes.
Almost all of these offices, however, operate from rented premises.
Separately, the DNC is working to modernise and expand the Central Drug Addiction Treatment Centre in Tejgaon, Dhaka, increasing its capacity from 124 to 250 beds.
A further initiative is under way to establish 200-bed treatment and rehabilitation centres in Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur and Mymensingh.