The chairman of the National River Protection Commission (NRPC), Dr Mujibur Rahman Hawlader, has said that a Tk. 5,000 crore project was taken up by the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) to address the water-logging problem of Chittagong, but it started the work without evicting illegal establishments from the banks of the canals. "The district administration has not been given Tk. 100 crore for conducting the eviction drive. But without a proper plan, a Tk. 5,000 crore project is given to the CDA. I do not understand this!" he said.

The NRPC chairman was addressing a seminar titled “Current situation of the rivers, existing problems and solutions” at the Chittagong Circuit House yesterday (Tuesday). He was chief guest at the event.

“We all are sons of the soil, sons of this country. To save the country, the river needs to be saved. For this, strict action should be taken against river-polluters. If necessary, their names should be published in the media,” said the NRPC chairman.

On August 9, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved a Tk. 5,616.50 crore project to resolve Chittagong’s waterlogging problem. City planners and representatives of the civil society called it a “flawed project” (The Independent had published a report, "Project to solve Ctg water-logging 'flawed'", on August 23). The CDA revised the project with the help of experts. On April 27, the CDA started the work, but without making any list of grabbers or evicting illegal establishments from the banks of the canals.

The NRPC chairman said: “If no one in the administration passed on information about the drive to polluters and grabbers, how could they become cautious beforehand?”

After dredging, the soil should be kept at fixed places, he said.

“No work should be done without a survey and work should be done according to a plan. It should be decided beforehand where the soil would be kept after it is removed from the river in consultation with the local administration,” he added.

With divisional commissioner Adbul Mannan in the chair, the keynote speaker was additional divisional commissioner (Revenue) Mominur Rashid Amin. Among others, Bangladesh Water Board Chittagong executive engineer Biddut Kumar Shah spoke on the occasion.