The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the authorities to take action against the illegal occupants of Gulshan Lake within the next seven days. In response to a writ petition, the HC benchcomprising Justice Zinat Ara and Justice JN Dev Chowdhury passed the order. The HC also issued a rule asking the government to explain within four weeks why it should not be directed not to allow any party to fill up the lake and construct edifices. Eight high-ranking officials of the government, including the environment secretary, the chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkhya (RAJUK) and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner, have been made respondents. They have been directed to reply to the rule within four weeks.
The HC also directed the government to submit a report before it in three weeks on the steps it has taken against those who were illegally encroaching upon, grabbing and occupying the lake. The court directed the chairman of RAJUK, the DMP commissioner and officer-in-charge of Shahjadpur police station to submit the report and implement the HC order within three weeks.
Advocate Asaduzzaman, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ petition with the HC on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), citing media reports that Gulshan Lake was being filled up by dumping sand sacks and constructing illegal edifices in the Shahjadpur area. HRPB filed the petition, seeking  an HC directive to protect the lake from encroachment.
During the hearing, advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that
some people are reportedly grabbing the land of Gulshan Lake
area by filling in earth and by constructing structures, thereby damaging the ecosystem.
Under the relevant environmental protection laws, changing the natural characteristics of water bodies, rivers and canals is prohibited. The illegal occupants have grabbed the lake with the help of influential people and are also violating the laws of the land, he added. Earlier, in a landmark verdict in July 2009, a division bench of the HC had issued a 10-point directive to the government, ordering it to restore the original positions of the Gulshan-Baridhara and Gulshan-Banani lakes, by evicting illegal occupants.
The HC asked the government to take some specific measures, such as conducting an official survey to
demarcate the lakes to restore their original positions in accordance with the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan, demolishing all illegal encroachments, and ensuring an end to the menace. It also asked law enforcement personnel to cooperate with the authorities concerned in executing the court’s order.
Acting on a writ petition filed by Gulshan Society, the then HC bench, led by Justice ABM Khairul Haque, had asked the government to comply with its orders by January 31, 2010.
The HC had asked the authorities to protect the nature and character of the lakes in accordance with the laws of the land. “If there is any legal occupant, the RAJUK has to provide them with alternative plots elsewhere, or pay compensation,” the HC had said.
However, the HC order is yet to be fully implemented, HRPB president and advocate Manzill Murshid alleged.