2,711 structures on Buriganga, Turag riverbanks bulldozed in 52 days

During the two months long eviction drive of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), some 2,711 illegal structures including several multistoried and semi-pucca buildings and establishments of housing companies built by influential people were bulldozed along the Buriganga and Turag rivers in three phases of the drive that started on January 29.
Despite pressures from various influential corners, the BIWTA has reclaimed around 58 acres of river lands from the encroachers during the drive. In the drive, the authority has penalised Tk 1.35 lakh for occupying river lands illegally and collected Tk 36.60 lakh from the illegal occupiers as unpaid lease money, according to BIWTA officials.
The Bangladesh Water Development Board is also operating eviction drives on their land on the riverbanks
along the two rivers.
However, although the green activists praised the authorities concerned for the 'courageous' drive to ensure encroacher-free rivers, they think the desired success cannot be achieved unless proper steps are taken to keep the reclaimed lands out of the clutches of grabbers.
They said that the recent strong drive against encroachers raised new hopes for protecting the country's rivers. But, to achieve the goals of the drive, the authorities concerned will have to set up demarcation pillars, give the land belonging to the river back to the rivers by dredging, planting trees, building walkways on the river banks and ensuring monitoring by river police to prevent the reoccupation of the reclaimed lands as happened in the past just after recovering the occupied river land.
When contacted about the drive, Shipping Ministry Md Abdus Samad told this correspondent that they have been working to give the riverbanks back to the rivers reclaiming from the encroachers. Strong evictions drives are continued to reclaim the riverbanks.
"The drives will continue until reclaiming of the riverbanks is completed. There will be no litheness in the drive. No one will be spared, who have occupied the river lands," he said.
He also added that they have already taken steps to construct walkways and walkway railings along the riverbanks. The authorities concerned have been preparing designs and planning for the work. Once the issues are disposed, the authority will float tender for the work.
"To complete all the procedures, the authority will need some times," Abdus Samad said, adding that nobody will be allowed to grab the river lands or riverbanks in future.
When asked about the demarcation of riverbanks by former Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan led Taskforce, which encouraged the errant people to encroach river lands, the Secretary said that the demarcations and installation of pillars were done following a survey report.
"There were some problems in the demarcation. At the same time, some people replaced the pillars with the help of influential persons. Some of the BIWTA officials were also involved in such offences. They were given punishments. The authority is now not allowing any flexibility in the eviction drives. Everybody will have to leave the riverbanks to the rivers," he added.
BIWTA Joint Director AKM Arif Uddin, who is coordinating the eviction drive as head of Dhaka River Port, said on Thursday that they have evicted 32 pucca buildings - of those, two three storied, seven two stories and 23 one story, 38 semi-pucca buildings and 103 tin-shed buildings in Thursday's drive.
During the drive, the authority reclaimed one acre of land from the encroachers.
He said that they have evicted a total of 2,711 illegal structures from the riverbanks in the two-month long eviction drive. Of those, 341 pucca buildings, 403 semi-pucca buildings and 1801 tin-sheds and other structures and 166 boundary walls.
They could reclaim 58 acres of land from the illegal grabbers in the 21-day drives, he added.
During the drive, the authority demolished the structures and reclaimed land from the Amin-Momin Housing Society owned by some influential persons, demolished the house of ACC lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajal's father in law and local MP Haji Mohammad Selim's buildings and shops.
According to the BIWTA sources, initially they identified around 900 illegal structures constructed surrounding the two rivers Buriganga and Turag. But when they went to demolish the structures, they found thousands of such structures. All of the structures will be evicted in the drive.
Until completion of bulldozing all the illegal structures, the evictions will continued, claimed Arif Uddin.
When contacted, Professor Emeritus of BRAC University Ainun Nishat, also water resource specialist, said that BIWTA is demolishing the structures erected by filling rivers.
"I think the authorities should now back the recovered lands to rivers by dredging or excavating those to ensure their proper flow. Or else, the recovered lands will be either misused by BIWTA or encroached again by the influential people," he added.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formed a river protection taskforce at a meeting with the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) to protect rivers around Dhaka and Chattogram from destruction in 2016. The eviction drive is proceeding under the jurisdiction of that taskforce.
Shipping Minister Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury recently said in a parliamentary session that no amount of influence will stop the drive and it will continue until all illegal structures on the banks of the Buriganga are removed.
The government has intensified the drives in the capital and elsewhere as the High Court on January 30 last described rivers as a "legal entity" and asked the authorities concerned to act like their "guardians" to save them from grabbers and pollution.