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Cause lost

Buriganga's second channel almost entirely grabbed

Tawfiq ue Ali
The Buriganga forked at Kamrangirchar to form a perfectly flowing channel in the olden days, serving the locality with livelihood like fishing.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) once had a plan to set up a harbour on the channel, known as Buriganga second channel, to ease pressure on Sadarghat terminal in the capital.
But the channel hardly exists today as hundreds of encroachers have earth-filled it from both sides to set up factories and other establishments.
The destruction of the channel actually paced up due to the dubious role of the district administration. Defying all logic and reasons, the administration has recorded the channel both as river and private land.
The district administration, official custodian of the channel, has also leased parts of the river area to set up establishments.
This indicates high level of corruption, as private parties got the ownership of some of the channel areas in exchange for money. The river has virtually turned into a source of making quick bucks.
The grabbers here include powerful real estate developers, a ballpoint pen manufacturer, a battery manufacturer, gas stations and private owners.
As usual, no one wants to take the responsibility of the crime. Asked how it happened and who to blame, a number of top officials concerned said the land filling happened a long time ago when they were not in charge.
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The Buriganga second channel used to flow from Chandnighat to Rayerbazar through Lalbagh, Nawabganj, Hazaribagh and Mohammadpur, nearly a five-kilometre stretch. Half of it has now been grabbed and officially allotted, said locals.
There is no official record of the grabbing either.
“Once, cargo and passenger vessels plied this channel and the locals used to bathe and do daily chores here," said Humayun Kabir, former ward commissioner of Nawabganj.
Fishermen used to anchor their boats in the
place where now stands the ballpoint pen factory, he said, adding that local inhabitants had already faced severe drainage problem as a consequence of grabb ing the channel.
The district administration wilfully left the channel out during the latest river foreshore demarcation survey to facilitate encroachment, alleged Kabir.
Md Qamrul Islam, local lawmakerand state minister for law, said:" It is our failure that we could not save the river from powerful grabbers. No matter which party in power, ruling party men had always plundered the channel by turn."
According to a report prepared in February this year by assistant commissioner (land) of the district administration, the river has been filled up in Kamrangirchar and Kalunagar areas by more than a hundred encroach-ers,bigand small.
The city corporation men have also filled up the channel from Loharpool to Companyghat dumping solid waste, the report said.
"Even 15 years ago, I used to visit my grand parents in Kholamora by boat, through this river," said Md Shamim, a resident of Nawabganj, adding that the channel was hardly naviga-
ble now.
"The choked river deeply saddens me when I go there for a stroll, “ said resident of Mohammadpur Mahbub Ali Khan.
The Directorate of Land Survey and Records has labelled the channel in Kamrangirchar and Kalunagar as river, a government property, but at places it has dubiously shown some channel areas as privateland.
According to law, a person cannot possess a river, as it isakhasland.
The inland water transport authority in 2007 under a scheme for Dhaka river port development
intended to build a harbour in the channel and take it over so that river vessels could berth there instead of crowding at Sadarghat terminal.
But the district administration never handed it over to BIWTA. Instead it leased out seven acres of the channel area to Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), a portion to power grid sub-station and two other pieces of land for a government hospital and a school in Kamrangirchar.
Asked why, Dhaka district Additional Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar Roy failed to answer saying it was an" old issue".
Shaikh Yusuf Harun,
deputy commissioner of Dhaka district, said they were working with BIWTA on how to demarcate the channel's foreshore area and evict the encroachers.
At a meeting on June 5, Manoj Kumar decided to form a technical committee comprised of engineers from Water Development Board, Dhaka Wasa and BIWTA to ensure the channel's flow despite allotment of river land to Rab and for the hospital.
"Another committee headed by me is working on how to reclaim rest of the channel," said Manoj Kumar giving no more details.