Save Kirtonkhola River from land grabbers, demand activists

Rights activists demanded eviction of land grabbers to save the Kirtonkhola river at a press conference to mark International River Save Day scheduled on March 14, organised by the Sanmilito Udzapan Parishad Barisal at BNDN hall of the city yesterday.
Speakers mentioned that 800 decimal land of Kirtonkhola river has fallen under the control of 306 influencial land-grabbers, who have reportedly also constructed high-storied buildings.
A powerful group of individuals are reportedly killing the river, to support setting up of illegal brick fields, the ship industry, iron shed industry, oil depots, aluminum industry, industries related to cement, textile and chemicals on the city side of Kirtonkhola river.
As a result, erosion has increased and navigability reduced at different points, including the Barisal river port terminal area. A vast amount of land from villages, including Panchani, Satani, Naiyakanda, Charbadna, Charkawa, Charbaria, Char Ulalguni, Char Abdani including roads, schools, houses, agricultural lands, bazar under the Barisal metropolitan areas have been lost due to the erosion.
Speakers noted that if the authorities failed to save the river Kirtonkhola, the Barisal city would be badly hit, with almost all 22 canals losing their navigability and drying up.
The meeting demanded 15 points, including saving original data of the river and canals using GIS, recovering the land following RS and CS mapping, ending leases in the river side and begin eviction drives against land grabbers, besides halting the dispersal of industrial fluid in the river.
The speakers included Enayet Hosen Shiblu, Advocate Hiron Kumar Das Mithu, Rangit Datta, Linkon Bain, Suvangkar Chakrabarti.
The papers of the meeting were introduced by Rafikul Alam.

Save Kirtonkhola River from land grabbers, demand activists

Rights activists demanded eviction of land grabbers to save the Kirtonkhola river at a press conference to mark International River Save Day scheduled on March 14, organised by the Sanmilito Udzapan Parishad Barisal at BNDN hall of the city yesterday. Speakers mentioned that 800 decimal land of Kirtonkhola river has fallen under the control of 306 influencial land-grabbers, who have reportedly also constructed high-storied buildings. A powerful group of individuals are reportedly killing the river, to support setting up of illegal brick fields, the ship industry, iron shed industry, oil depots, aluminum industry, industries related to cement, textile and chemicals on the city side of Kirtonkhola river. As a result, erosion has increased and navigability reduced at different points, including the Barisal river port terminal area. A vast amount of land from villages, including Panchani, Satani, Naiyakanda, Charbadna, Charkawa, Charbaria, Char Ulalguni, Char Abdani including roads, schools, houses, agricultural lands, bazar under the Barisal metropolitan areas have been lost due to the erosion. Speakers noted that if the authorities failed to save the river Kirtonkhola, the Barisal city would be badly hit, with almost all 22 canals losing their navigability and drying up. The meeting demanded 15 points, including saving original data of the river and canals using GIS, recovering the land following RS and CS mapping, ending leases in the river side and begin eviction drives against land grabbers, besides halting the dispersal of industrial fluid in the river. The speakers included Enayet Hosen Shiblu, Advocate Hiron Kumar Das Mithu, Rangit Datta, Linkon Bain, Suvangkar Chakrabarti. The papers of the meeting were introduced by Rafikul Alam.