Shipping minister Shajahan Khan yesterday directed the authorities concerned to stop sand, brick, and stone businesses on the banks of the city’s rivers with immediate effect. “The city’s rivers will be cleared of encroachers, no matter how powerful they may be. Legal action will be taken against them, whenever necessary,” the minister told reporters while visiting city river ports from Sadarghat via Ashulia to Tongi. The minister directed the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport uthority (BIWTA) and the Dhaka district administration to constitute a committee to evict illegal occupants of riverbanks and to stop illegal sand and stone businesses. He also directed the authorities to conduct a survey of the illegal occupants of riverbanks and the condition of the demarcation pillars.
Housing and public works minister Mosharraf Hossain, senior secretary of water resources ministry Zafar Ahmed Khan, additional secretary of industries ministry Porag Begum, BIWTA chairman Commodore M Mozammel Huq, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) chairman Mizanur Rahman and National Rivers Commission member Md Alauddin were present during the river port visits.
River demarcation pillars have been installed to protect the rivers from encroachment, Shajahan Khan said, adding: “We have already constructed 20-km walkways to prevent reoccupation of the river banks. We will construct 50-km walkways as well.”
River banks at Basila, Shoalmachi, Jhaochar, Gabtali, Ramchandrapur, Amin Bazar, Diabari, Chatbari, Birulia, Dour, Ashulia, Tongi, Morapara, Rupganj, Kanchpur and Narayanganj port areas have been taken over by brick kilns, realtors and businesses engaged in gathering materials from riverbeds.
Highly placed sources said some BIWTA employees are trying to hand over river banks cleared of land-grabbers at Basila to another encroacher.
A river trip from Sadarghat to Gabtali yesterday revealed that some unscrupulous people are using riverbanks near Basila and Shoalmachi areas for brick kilns and housing plots, ignoring the demarcation pillars installed by the district administration to mark the banks.
On November 6, 2012, the High Court (HC) issued a show-cause notice to the BIWTA, asking it to explain within 10 days why it should not be directed to evict sand traders from the riverbanks and protect the areas from encroachment. The BIWTA is yet to carry out the HC order. The HC, on June 25, 2009, had also ordered that the protection of the four rivers around Dhaka be ensured, forbidding sand traders from running their businesses on the banks.