Eviction Drive on Buriganga
47 illegal structures knocked down
The authorities in a joint drive yesterday demolished around 47 illegal structures to free the second channel of the Buriganga from encroachment.
The Dhaka district administration, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) conducted the drive, which began at 10:00am.
The drive along the north side of the riverbank stretching from Lohar Bridge at Killarmore to Swarighat in Old Dhaka continued till the evening.
Among the demolished establishments, two were concrete structures and included an under-construction warehouse.
Local residents claimed that the warehouse belonged to Haji Mohammad Selim, a former lawmaker of the ruling party.
Selim, however, could not be reached for his comment over the ownership of the warehouse as his phone was found switched off.
Haji Mobarak, a resident of Lalbagh, said the place where the warehouse was being built after filling up the area with garbage and earth was once part of the river.
Construction materials were also seized from the warehouse during the drive.
The Buriganga second channel used to flow from Chandnighat to Rayerbazar through Lalbagh, Nawabganj, Hazaribagh and Mohammadpur, covering nearly a five-kilometre area.
Half of it has now been grabbed and officially allotted, said locals.
Saiful Islam, joint director (port and traffic) of BIWTA, said the place of the encroachment was once the original channel of the Buriganga.
But the channel hardly exists now due to continuous dumping of garbage and grabbing over the years, he said.
BIWTA once had a plan to set up a harbour on the channel to ease pressure on Sadarghat terminal in the capital.
Md Abul Bashar, director (port) of BIWTA, said the authorities would continue the drive to free both sides of the channel from encroachers.
Asked how the BIWTA authority would keep the recovered lands free from grabbers, he said, they had taken plans to set up walkways and plant saplings on both sides of the river.
About the BWDB’s failure to stop the grabbing, its Executive Engineer Tarik Al Fayez said the organisation had only one assistant director and a surveyor to cover a 33-km stretch from Abdullahpur to Postogola.
Raselul Kader, executive magistrate of the deputy commissioner’s office, led the drive.
-With The Daily Star input
