The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has failed to prevent greedy land-grabbers, masquerading as traders of stone chips, sand and brick, from encroaching upon riverbanks around the city. These developers and traders continue to occupy the riverbanks in the name of expanding their business, citing lack of space and rising demand. The BIWTA has also failed to implement a High Court order to protect the four rivers girdling the capital—the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and the Shitlakhya—from steady encroachment and pollution.
On November 6, 2012, the HC issued a show-cause notice to BIWTA to explain in 10 days why it should not be directed to evict sand traders from the river banks and protect the areas from encroachment.
However, the BIWTA is yet to carry out the HC order fully to free the river banks of encroachers.
It was observed during a visit that someone going by the name of “Q” was dealing in sand under the very nose of BIWTA officials at Pagla Jetty Ghat grabbing the banks of the Buriganga.
A local shop keeper, on condition of anonymity, said, “The sand trader is making a lot of money by appeasing some port officers and some senior BIWTA officials at Pagla Jetty Ghat. He has to pay BIWTA employees to run his business”.
“Q” has grabbed no less than 50 feet of the river bed right from the demarcation pillars of the bank at the jetty ghat.
Locals also alleged that in order to grab the river bed “Q” has cajoled officials into installing the demarcation pillars in wrong places.
On the pretext of running businesses such as sand, brick and stone chips, construction of ships at different riverside dockyards, shops, mosques and temples, encroachers are taking possession of the banks of the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Turag and Balu.
A group with political influence has also built structures for running bamboo and other businesses.
The authorities have failed to free the river banks of encroachers despite raising concrete demarcation pillars as per a government decision.
The influential group occupying the river banks destroyed the pillars at some places no sooner had they been erected, locals alleged.
BIWTA’s eviction drives have also gone in vain. The failure can be attributed to the machinations of certain corrupt and greedy BIWTA officials allegedly operating in league with the encroachers.
Shafiqul Haque, director (port) of BIWTA, told The Independent that the sand traders were running their business in their own land.
“It is not true that the traders are doing business with the encouragement of BIWTA officials. Nobody is running business inside the demarcation pillars”, he claimed. Abdus Sobhan, former additional director general of the department of environment, said that the demarcation pillars around the city rivers were not properly installed as per cadastral survey (CS) and revised survey (RS).
“The real area of a river should be earmarked during the monsoon when the river is in full flow, showing the location of its bank. But demarcation pillars installed during the dry season cannot be considered as determining the river’s actual size. The foreshores of the rivers should be measured during monsoon, not during the dry season. Installing the demarcation pillars during the dry season means encouraging encroachment, not protecting the river”, he observed.
-With The Independent input
