Haikkar Khal disappearing as encroachment goes unabated
Natural canals crisscrossing the low-lying areas along the Mohammadpur flood protection dam are disappearing fast due to encroachment by land grabbers.
The famous Haikkar Khal, which links the Turag river with the Buriganga, faces obliteration as the “so-called” landowners continue to fill it up.
Hundreds of signboards have been put up in the filled-up sections of the canal claiming ownership of the lands just behind the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial.
Not so long ago, the canal originating from the Turag streamed across a vast area in Ramchandrapur, Basila, Mohammadpur and Rayer Bazar, before emptying into the Buriganga river. It has now shrunk considerably.
Interestingly, no government office claims responsibility for protecting the canal.
The deputy commissioner’s office said it is the Dhaka City Corporation’s responsibility to protect the canal since the corporation plans to set up a graveyard there.
Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka asked this correspondent to contact the Local Government and Rural Development ministry to inquire about the issue.
“Our project proposal for setting up a graveyard there is now with the Planning Commission,” said Khoka.
“It is very difficult to protect canals because of a huge demand for land in our country,” he added.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority built a landing station for boats on the Haikkar Khal in Mohammadpur near the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in 2000.
Local traders, who use the canal for transporting sand and bricks to local markets, said they would suffer terribly if the canal is not protected.
The canal must be brought back to its original shape, they said.
“The way the canal is being encroached upon, nothing would be left of it in the coming year. It will be a big blow to thousands of people in the area,” said Ramzan Ali, who trades in brick and sand.
In 1997, the DCC abandoned a project to set up a truck terminal by filling up the Haikkar Khal after The Daily Star ran reports.
Real estate developers have filled up most of the canal at the Turag end and incorporated them in their projects.
Retired schoolteacher Mohammad Arefin, who owns a plot near the Khal, said he protested the filling-up of the canal last year.
“I became a target of the land grabbers soon,” he said.
“I went to the Mohammadpur Police Station to file a complaint but the officers there told me to go home and mind my own business.”
