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Legal cover to plunder Buriganga
The head of the task force, Minister for Shipping Akbar Hussain was told by the officials that it would be almost impossible to evict all the encroachers as most of them held "valid documents". The strategy adopted on the day remained confidential, but all eyes were cast on the office of the district deputy commissioner that has largely been held responsible for plundering public land, including the shores, off-shores and the channel of the river Buriganga.
CITY CORRESPONDENT
Few months ago when the recently formed task force to save the river Buriganga went on a river cruise to assess the extent of the problem, the accompanying officials looked worried about a certain aspect of land management. The head of the task force, Minister for Shipping Akbar Hussain was told by the officials that it would be almost impossible to evict all the en-croachers from the river Buriganga because most of them held "valid documents" of lease or ownership. The strategy adopted on the day by the group of policy makers remained confidential, but all eyes were cast on the office of the district deputy commissioner that has largely been held responsible for plundering public land, including the shores, off-shores and the channel of the river Buriganga.
All along the river Buriganga from Shoilmachi up to Fatullah and beyond, the shores and off-shores and often the channel, have been registered under the names of individuals. At places, the so called owners have paid land taxes (Khajna) for years and to make things more complicated for those wanting to free the river Buriganga of encroachments, the land has been sold and resold to innocent middle class population of the city.
Syed Jahangir, a businessman in the city, bought such a chunk of plot along the river Buriganga about five years ago along with 'friends' in his community.
Following the task force decision to identify and demarcate the river, a group of officials backed by a magistrate arrived at the site near Looterchar recently. The official delegation soon confronted the angry landowners with 'proper documents' of ownership.
At one stage the delegation had to withdraw without being able to do any work.
Jahangir, who has also signed a petition to the government along with hundreds of other landowners, told The Daily Star that if the government compensated him and his friends he would give up the land for the sake of saving the river Buriganga.
According to BIWTA officials, in addition to the landowners, who have not built any structures, there are still 600 listed structures visibly encroaching on the river Buriganga.
"Every body knows about the Sena Kalyan Sangstha's massive encroachment because they filled up the river to build a berthing site," said Jahangir adding that hundreds of landowners like him, did not know what to do with their plots in the river or on the shores and off-shores.
While Jahangir innocently became a victim of the floppy land management system of the country, not many are so innocent. There are at least a dozen mosques and madrashas encroaching on the river Buriganga. Banking on people's fear and respect for religion, a section of local religious leaders
along Kamrangirchar and elsewhere occupied the river and built the structures in the presence of police and other officials. Although Akbar Hussain ahs reiterated his conviction about removing all illegal structures, he has openly expressed his own fear about these
structures. In a conversation with The Daily Star recently the minister said that he did not want to stir religious sentiment.
"I want to involve these religious leaders to grow awareness among the people so that they themselves remove the structures from the channel of the river," Minister for Shipping said. At Nawabbagh across Kamrangirchar, a local godfather has changed the course of the river by earth-filling a large chunk "with valid documents". The encroachment near Kholamora is so distinct and large that on the other side of the river the diverted water is causing erosion and claiming fresh land every day.
Nowadays earth-filling the river has become so easy with the arrival of locally made mini-dredgers and barges that carry the earth. A large chunk of the river could be filled up within matter of days before the authorities are able to realise what is happening.
The sub-channel of the river Buriganga at Kamrangirchar is fast
vanishing as the illegal encroachers have embarked on filling it up in an alarming rate. Local people said that the entire channel has been sold out to influential people.
BIWTA officials recently said that they would soon launch an eviction drive to remove some of the remaining 600 encroachers from the river. Nobody at the policy level seems to know exactly how to solve the deep-rooted problem involving the river Buriganga. For the time being the authorities are haphazardly scouring the surface of puzzle that is leading to a near impasse. Meanwhile many landowners on the river Buriganga are waiting for the right moment to construct.