Over 8,000 Grabbers identified in river survey

The first-ever survey on the Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Turag and Balu rivers flowing through Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj were submitted to the Supreme Court registrar on Tuesday.
Over 8,000 land grabbers have occupied areas of the Buriganga, Shitalakkhya, Turag and Balu rivers around the capital, building various structures, say survey reports of four district administrations concerned.
Districts administrations of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Munshiganj calculated the figures of land grabbers as per the Cadastral Survey (CS 1910-1913) records.
But, veteran activists of river protection campaigns have a different opinion about the figure of encroachers, which they said should be much higher if estimated according to the CS records.
Only Narayanganj district administration has mentioned the amount of river area lost to grabbers, which is 1,158 acres as per the CS records.
The four district administrations prepared the reports on river demarcation and submitted them to the High Court in the last couple of days. The HC had asked them to do the job by the November 30 deadline as part of its directive to save the rivers.
Noted activist of the river protection campaign Prof Muzaffer Ahmad said the figure of river encroachers must be many times higher if estimated as per the CS records.
“On a general observation, the number of encroachers cannot be what has been mentioned,” he said. “It is vital to know whether the survey was carried out properly.”
The structures illegally built in the rivers include concrete, semi-concrete, paramagnet and makeshift buildings, factories, boundary and guide walls, jetties, warehouses and temporary religious structures.
The deputy commissioners of the four districts carried out separate surveys to prepare the reports.
Dhaka DC Zillar Rahman said in his report that his office has prepared a list of 4,021 land grabbers that have illegally occupied areas in the Buriganga, Turag and Balu.
Three technical committees were formed to conduct the surveys in 134 mouzas and made 430 sketch maps of 69.5km stretch of areas in the three rivers.
DC of Munshiganj Md Mosharraf Hossain said there are 174 grabbers in Munshiganj sadar upazila and 746 in Sirajdikhan upazila and 224 in the Dhaleshwari and Shitalakkhya rivers in the district.
DC of Narayanganj Md Shamsur Rahman said there are 3,010 illegal structures on 1,158 acres of land in the Balu, Buriganga and Shitalakkhya as per CS records.
The amount of grabbed land as per the CS records is six times higher than the grabbed land as per the Revisional Survey report while the number of illegal structures as per the CS records is 10 times higher than the number in the RS report, the survey report says.
The main cause of land having been grabbed is the change in the course of the rivers.
The DCs of Dhaka, Narayanganj and Munshiganj submitted the reports to the HC on Monday. The DC of Gazipur and the chairman Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) submitted their reports on Sunday.
All of them submitted maps of the surveyed areas along with the reports.
The DC of Gazipur mentioned the names of those involved in building illegal structures and encroaching on river land. They are AK Azad, managing director of Sajid Washing Ltd (Hamim Group) at Nishadnagar, Tongi in Gazipur, the secretary on behalf of the Tongi Bazar Jame Mosque in Gazipur, and others.
The authorities of Tongi municipality fish market and Sree Sree Durga Temple of Tongi are also on the list.
The report submitted by the BIWTA chairman states that sewage and garbage are dumped in the rivers, which contribute to their pollution.
Following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, an environmental and human rights organisation, the HC in June directed deputy commissioners of the four districts to survey and demarcate the four rivers and place reports to it by November 30.
Talking to The Daily Star, advocate Manzill Murshid of the organisation appreciated the government officials for having done “a difficult job”.

Source: The Daily Star