City lake grabbers yet to be touched

Encroachment on khasland in the city and elsewhere in the country have been continuing una-bated for long many years. Even the riverbeds have been grabbed by landsharks. To our horror the waterbodies and wetlands, which are the lifeline in the city, have been illegally occupied. As a result, the city is dying gradually harming the ecology. The mega city of Dhaka is facing the extreme pollution all around.
The authorities concerned conducted eviction drive for about fourteen times, in seven years but to no avail.
The encroachers are so cunning that they resurface as soon as the eviction drive comes to an end and begin to erect structures. Even during the eviction favouritism is alleged and some structures are not touched.
Most of the waterbodies have either been filled in by earth or illegally grabbed under the very nose of the authorities. Rubbish and litters were dumped in the lakes and other wetlands in the city in such a away that majority of them have vanished and a few which escaped the hands of encroachers now look simply like dead lagoon. The stagnant water of the lake emits offensive odours that not only hurt the olfactory organ, but also poses serious health hazard. The water has become murky and it is so contaminated that it has a suitable breeding ground of mosquitoes. The foul water causes other maladies too.
High rise buildings were erected by landsharks by grabbing the lakes. The effluents deposited in the lake water are thoroughly polluting the environment much to the disaster on the health of the people living around. Very recently the apex court has rallied for rivers and waterbodies and an eviction drive by BIWTA was followed. But most of the high rises on the lakes remained untouched and no punitive action was taken against the owners. Gulshan lake is almost grabbed by unauthorised occupants who constructed high rises. Unholy nexus between the encroachers and the authorities are alleged by the locals who bear the brunt of ecological degradation. They demand a double quick action against the landsharks.

Courtesy of The News Today