43 canals demarcated, grabbers identified

JS body decides to get the troublesome job to PM for directives
From The Daily Star
The Land Survey Department of the land ministry has finally demarcated the capital’s 43 canals lost to grabbers and identified persons and institutions that encroached upon the water bodies.
On receiving the list of canals and grabbers, the parliamentary standing committee on land ministry at a meeting decided to take up the issue to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her directives as it believes it will be a troublesome task to recover the canals and need a concerted efforts.
According to the Land Survey Department, influential individuals grabbed most of the canals where they erected multi-storey buildings for markets, educational institutions and residences.
Even, a few government institutions including the Dhaka City Corporation built roads and markets on some canals, according to the department.
“It is a major success that the Land Survey Department has finally identified the locations of the canals and prepared a list of the grabbers. Now, we will take the matter to the prime minister and request her to form a high powered committee to recover the canals,” AKM Mozammel Huq, chief of the parliamentary body, told reporters after the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
He said they would hand over the lists to the prime minister on her return from abroad.
The committee would be formed with police, judiciary and other government institutions as the recovery drive will require coordinated efforts, he added.
“It is a mammoth task as many establishments have been built on the canals and the grabbers are quite influential and have already managed fake documents for ownership claim,” Mozammel said.
The parliamentary body had asked the Land Survey Department last July to prepare the list within a month. But the survey department failed and said it was facing difficulties in identifying the locations of the canals as many structures have been built on the filled up canals.
The standing committee hopes that the rescue operation will start soon.
“We hope it will be possible to recover at least 20 canals by next June if there is no court stay order on the drive,” Mozammel said.
Once recovered, the canals will help greatly improve the persistent water-logging situation in the capital. Roads built on the canals will be excavated again and alternative roads will be constructed, Mozammel said.
He said recovery of the canals may need fresh laws since the task seems difficult and complex. Among the grabbers there are many influential persons who might create obstacle to the rescue operation, he explained.
On October 6, lawmakers in the House expressed their concern over the city’s water logging problem and demanded that the government initiate all-out measures to rescue Dhaka’s water bodies.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam told the lawmakers that the government was facing difficulties in recovering the canals and water bodies encroached upon by real estate companies and individuals who are “highly influential and financially powerful”.
Ashraf, however, told the House that despite these obstacles the government is firm to recover the canals and water bodies to save the capital.
At its meeting the parliamentary standing committee also discussed recovery of a huge amount of land and wealth of the estate of a nawab in Dhaka, Savar and Gazipur from grabbers.
“You will be astonished to hear that wealth worth thousands of crores of taka has been plundered by different quarters and individuals,” Mozammel told reporters.
He said the committee has already asked the land ministry to begin the process for recovering and acquiring the estate’s land.
Mozammel said land ministry officials informed the parliamentary committee that setting up of land survey offices in upazilas will start in January 2010. The committee asked the ministry to digitalise the survey task.

Courtesy of The Daily Star