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Evicting Meghna Grabbers

BIWTA drive stops halfway

Officials contradict each other over legal status of a dockyard

Staff Correspondent
Halfway into an eviction drive at Char Betagi in Munshiganj's Gazaria yesterday, the BIWTA withdrew as a curious drama unfolded over the legal status of two slipways built by a dockyard on the Meghna's foreshore.
A team of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) officials, including its chairman Commodore M Mahbub-ul Islam, went to the private dockyard of Khan Brothers Slipways and Engineering Works in Hossendi for a much-awaited eviction drive.
They went there to remove the slipways but soon the BIWTA officials appeared unsure whether the company had the required foreshore licence. The team just tore down a brick wall as a mark of eviction and left.
At the scene, the BIWTA high officials not only contradicted one another over the foreshore licence issue, but also their earlier comments on the matter.
Curiously, they had on them no official documents regarding the issuing of foreshore licence and how the company owned a part of a delta in the river.
Commodore Mahbub at one stage asked BIWTA magistrate Mostafizur Rahman, who was leading the mobile court for the eviction drive, to look into how Khan Brothers became the owner of land of Char Betagi delta in the river.
Char Betagi is near another delta called Char Balaki and they are surrounded by the Meghna. The Shitalakkhya and Dhaleshwari converge with the Meghna there.
Commodore Mahbub told the reporters present at the scene that the dockyard is "partially illegal" and has a "partial license".
"We are reviewing documents to know whether we have issued them foreshore license or not," he said responding to a question from this correspondent.
When pointed out that the BIWTA had been saying that Khan Brothers was building the slipways without the mandatory foreshore licence, he said, "We have to check."
Asked why they embarked on a decisive action like eviction drive without checking the dockyard's legal status, he said, "It is an ongoing process."
Md Shafiqul Haque, BIWTA director for river ports, said, "We have given them permission for a dockyard."
The BIWTA had cancelled its January 23 administrative decision to issue foreshore licence to Khan Brothers.
Asked when and how the
company got the licence, Shafiqul said, "I have not brought it [documents regarding the issuing of licence) here, if you need, come to me, I will show you."
When Md Gulzar Ali, joint director and river port officer of Narayanganj, was asked the same question, he first refused to respond and later said, "1 don't know. Talk to the magistrate."
Magistrate Mostafizur Rahman said, "I have no knowledge about the foreshore licence of Khan Brothers. The BIWTA officials did not brief me on such issues."
"They should have come prepared after being clear about the legal position of the company," he said when asked why the eviction drive was being conducted without being sure about such basics.
Gulzar Ali in early February told this paper that the BIWTA had not issued the foreshore licence to Khan Brothers and whatever the company was doing on the Meghna foreshore and in the river was unauthorised.
A licence is required to build a dockyard or slipways. BIWTA engineers ensure that those are built according to the approved specifications, which was not the case here, he had said.
The eviction team later dug up some sand filled areas in the river near the Meghna power plant and at the Meghna launch terminal. It is scheduled to carry on with the drive until Thursday.
The National River Conservation Commission in a letter on February 18 instructed the BIWTA to stop construction of Khan Brothers' slipways and the deputy commissioner of Munshiganj to provide the commission with documents on how Khan Brothers became the owner of Char Betagi.
Both the authorities had been silent on the river commission's direction over the last three months.
Tofayel Kabir Khan, managing director of the dockyard company, had claimed before this correspondent that they purchased
40 acres on Char Betagi from "individual owners" on the basis of Bangladesh Survey (BS) records.
A 2009 landmark High Court judgment for conservation of the country1s rivers said a river's land is to be determined on the basis of CS and RS land records.
BIWTA insiders said a pattern of river grabbing has been observed in all rivers of the country. The river grabbers "manage" some title deeds for land of a delta which is larger than the delta itself. They then fill up portions of the river around the delta skilfully and alter the natural course and character of the river and its foreshores.
A report published in this daily on February 9 said Khan Brothers Slipway and Engineering Works was building the two slipways in the Meghna river in Munshiganj.
The firm had neither the permission nor the environment clearance from the authorities for the project, government and company officials had confirmed.