Agonising wait for Rajuk permits lost from 'hacked' server

Around 30,000 landowners are staring at huge financial losses and hassles as they are yet to get back their documents seeking permission for construction of their buildings that were lost from the server of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk). 

Sirajul Islam (not his real name) told The Business Standard that his application seeking Rajuk's go-ahead for the construction of a building was expected to be approved within 10 December last year, but the documents going missing from the agency's server on 6 December has delayed the process.

"It has been so long, but Rajuk is just saying they will retrieve the lost information."

The government on 23 August 2022 published a gazette notification for the Detailed Area Plan for Dhaka city area. Due to the DAP, the land owners have to build buildings of lower height than before in most of the areas under Rajuk.

In view of the application of land owners and realtors, Rajuk later decided that those who applied for LUC before 23 August can construct buildings under the previous rules. That is, those who applied before 23 August will get more area than the area mentioned in the current DAP. Rajuk on 4 December published a notification in this regard.

Just after two days, around 30,000 files of land clearance and construction permits disappeared from Rajuk's server at the Kaliakoir Data Centre. 

Rajuk says that a vested quarter might make its website dysfunctional intentionally to show that they made the applications before 23 August 2022 – the day on which the new DAP was gazetted. Meanwhile, urban planners and landowners suspect Rajuk officials' involvement in the wrongdoing.

"I submitted the application with necessary papers in April last year, and as per the authorities' decision, was supposed to get approval to construct the building under the previous rules. However, if I have to file an application afresh, the height of the building will decrease. This will cause massive losses," Sirajul Islam told TBS.

The victim also said had he obtained the permission on time, the piling works of the building would have been done by now. "The loan I took from a bank [to construct the building] is lying idle in the account while the prices of the construction materials are going up. I have not even got any instructions on when I could start the work."

Another aggrieved landowner Aminul Islam said, "The approval of my building had been stuck for six months. Now because of this problem [with Rajuk server], another three months have passed. Rajuk has asked us to apply again without giving any specific information. If the new application is approved as per the new DAP, the height of the building will be reduced and I will have to return money to my partners [who bought shares in the proposed building] out of my pocket.

Some landowners also told TBS that many people want to take bank loans keeping buildings as mortgages. Bank authorities in such cases write to Rajuk for verification, they noted, adding that with the loss of the document, such clients would face trouble getting bank loans as Rajuk would not be able to verify the documents.

Alamgir Shamsul Alamin Kajal, president of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB), said, "We have heard that efforts are on to retrieve the lost files but we have not gotten back any of them yet. That is why we are in trouble with the current projects, and this is not good for future business. Such disappearance of files from a government agency has made us very concerned. And, we are disappointed at this."

Although the Rajuk authorities said that they filed a case in this connection, police said a general diary was filed. 

Experts have said that the loss of clients' documents may also spawn corruption.

Clients would be able to temper the design approved by Rajuk, they said, adding that the Rajuk authorities would not be able to do much to prevent such wrongdoings since they have the design to challenge any forged documents. Also, the Rajuk authorities would not be able to do anything if anyone constructs buildings beyond approved height, they maintained.

Asked about this, Rajuk officials, however, said they have retrieved the lost documents but it would take some time to make them accessible to the clients.

Officials at Rajuk's IT department declined to comment on how the agency's server got dysfunctional. They requested TBS to speak to the Rajuk chairman in this regard.

Rajuk Chairman Anisur Rahman Miah told TBS that a vested quarter might make the website dysfunctional intentionally to show that they made the applications before 23 August 2022 – the day on which the new DAP was gazetted. However, that was not possible because the applications made to us online show real time, which could not be removed.

Rajuk Planner and DAP Project Director Md Ashraful Islam said, "Our system has been reactivated. Those [about 8,000 customers] who had pending applications have been asked through text messages on their phone numbers to submit their "attached" documents."

The official comments on the files could not be removed from the system. The documents that were attached to the comments were removed and those have been recovered as well, he added.

He further said all the retrieved "attached" documents are now jumbled up, and for that reason, artificial Intelligence is being used by IT experts to separate them. The whole process might take about one or a half months to complete, he said, adding, "Even then if we doubt any documents, we will scrutinise them."

Rajuk is operating its website in association with the software company Technohaven Company Limited. Ruhul Amin, senior project manager of Technohaven, told TBS that Rajuk's website is now fully operational and customers are able to submit their applications and previous applicants are able to enter their profiles.

He acknowledged that some of the customers are not getting access to their files, adding work is underway to fix the problem.

Land use clearance and construction permit plan from RAJUK are required for constructing any building in Rajuk area. Traditional method was followed in the past. In 2016, the land use clearance became online initially in one of the eight zones (zone-5). The clearance process went online fully from 2018. The Rajuk started giving construction permits online from May 2019.

The clients apply for land use clearance and construction permits on this website upon registration. The clients need to upload building plans and other documents on this website.

Rajuk uploads the land clearance and construction permits on the same website upon necessary process. A client can start construction of the building downloading the approvals from there.

Rajuk sources said the website became dysfunctional on 6 December last and around 30,000 clients' documents were lost. The lost documents are the applications for construction permits from May 2019 to 6 December 2022.

On 2 January this year, the High Court sought the explanation of the Rajuk chairman on the incident.

Is it a hoax?

Experts and urban planners have said that Rajuk officials also might have been involved in the hacking of the agency's server as clients might fall victim to corruption, and harassment while applying again.

Iqbal Habib, noted architect and member secretary of the Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), told TBS that the information of an important government agency has a backup system in 2-3 steps. Rajuk also is supposed to have such a system.

"When Rajuk first announced that the file went missing, it was a hoax. Maybe, the officials of Rajuk tried to bring the issue of the files going missing so that they can show that the applications were filed before the date on which the new DAP was approved. However, under the pressure of the government, Rajuk is now saying that the files have been retrieved."

He also said that Rajuk officials had a dishonest motive behind the matter. "Basically, this was an attempt to create chaos. The dishonest quarters were trying to make such an incident happen because of the change in the height of buildings on the new DAP."

In response to this allegation, the Rajuk chairman said, "We have no server of our own.

"After reviewing the retrieved files we have found that the files were hacked. But, they were not hacked from Rajuk because all our data is stored in the Kaliakoir Data Centre [under the ICT Division]. The data was hacked from that central data centre. We store all our data in the Kaliakoir Data Centre as per the government's decision."

"We have filed a lawsuit under the cybercrime law, sent a letter to the Central Data Centre, sought the cooperation of the computer council, and finally involved Buet in the process to get greater acceptance. We signed a Tk28 lakh contract with Buet to identify those who have done the offense. Buet will also recommend ways to ensure that such incidents do not happen in the future."

Golam Ruhani, assistant commissioner of the Motijheel zone of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), however, told TBS that Rajuk has not lodged any case, in fact, the agency has filed a general diary (GD).

"We have found some information about the incident. However, there is no progress in retrieving the files."