Shops, slums and rickshaw garages have occupied the land within 10 feet of railway lines at many points in the Chittagong city in breach of section 144 that prohibits such encroachments.
Incidents of stones being hurled from these slums on the passengers of running trains have increased in the recent times, local people said, blaming the authorities concerned for not taking any step to remove these illegal structures.
During a spot visit, makeshift tea stalls, slums, rickshaw garages were seen within ten feet of railway lines at Dewan hat beneath the footbridge, Ambagan crossing, UCEF school crossing, Jhaotola crossing, technical crossing and Sholosohor junction.
Mubarak Ali, who came to Chittagong some 50 years ago from Comilla and was residing at Ambagan since then, said he was an eyewitness to who and how the railway land in his area went under illegal occupation.
‘The occupation has been going on since the independence of the country,’ he said, adding the encroachment on the railway land was not so rampant as it is now.
Local influential people, who are involved in politics, led the occupation, he continued.
The railway authorities, however, have claimed that they conduct drive to evict the illegal occupants on a regular basis.
Assistant general manager of Bangladesh Railway (east) Forid Uddin suggested that the matter should be placed to the estate department as the department was empowered to evict such illegal occupation.
Chief estate officer of Bangladesh Railway East Zone Md Kamrul Ameen admitted that the railway lands got into the hand of some people for lack of strict surveillance.
In the absence of required manpower and police forces, the eviction drive cannot be launched regularly.
‘The evicted people return to the same place within a few days after the eviction which made our task to keep the railway line free of such occupation difficult,’ he said.
‘We are going to conduct the eviction programme on August 26 considering the safety of passengers,’ he further said.
-With New Age input
