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Bhashantek slum dwellers allege

‘Some big shots used to collect monthly rent for a landlord’

By Staff Correspondent
The evleMtn victims at Bhashantek Basti (slum) in the city were picking through the remains of their shanties till yesterday. Some were busy rebuilding those will bamboo. The whole Baati area was bulldozed on Mqhday last by the Ministry of Works in a bid to recover the public land for implementation of a Tk 20 crore project of the Handloom Board.
Over a thousand policemen and me in red head and hand bands, equipped with about nine bulldozers in the presence of magistrates and officials, swooped on the area Just after nine am and completed the operation by 2 pm.
Some sources concerned said to plan thdt such an eviction operation.' the relevant department hiust have taken at least a peek's preparation. Forty two' acres of khas land had been occupied by more than 2,000 poqr families, rickshawpullers, garments workers,
vendors, part-tffte' domestic workers and thousand others had been living at Bhashantek slum since 1974. when, according to local people they were brought to the area by the government under a programme for temporary rehabilitation of the victims of river erosion and those homeless.
Scores of men. women and children gathered around this correspondent at the site. "We did not even have time to eat the food we had in front of us. the bulldozers came and ran over our homes burying all our belongings while the men in red head bands started beating us indiscriminately."' alleged Mar-ium. a resident of the Basti for eight years.
Although many residents alleged that they bad not been given any warning before the heavy handed operation, it is learnt that the Works Ministry first had started notifying them of the eviction »in December
last. In January, the Ministry even cleared a part of the Basti but the operation was postponed in view of the Ramadan. Some local people said that the bulldozers then left the place with the understanding that they would resume work two days after the Eid-ul-Fitr".
Some victims living in the area as tenants alleged that the whole Bhashantek Basti area was i ontrolled by a few big shots who had rents" collected from them every month. "For each shanty, we were paying between Tk 300 and 500 per month to the landlord." said an old man. When asked who was the landlord.' he declined to name him.
Another tenant added that most of the original settlers in the area became landlords' and the real victims were those who were tenants in the area. "Here, many of us are tenants. We were facing threat of eviction both
from the landlords and the government," said a woman, who said her late husband was a member of the security forces.
A host of NGOs working in the Bhashantek area had re portedly been lobbying against the eviction plan. State Minister for Works Afsaruddin Ahmed Khan was sacked following the eviction.
The State Minister later visited the victims and promised that they would not be asked to vacate the place until they were rehabilitated elsewhere.