DEATH OF A WATER BODY AND INDISCRIMINATE ENCROACHMENT

The long row of car showrooms seen on the right emerged from nowhere soon after the fall of the autocratic regime on August 05 last year. None knows who owns the land on which those shops are built. Before August 05, most part of the vacant land along both sides of the Matikata Road, which has literally contributed to the demise of the water body, popularly known as Bhasantek Beel, carried the signboards of one 'Online Group'. Signboards are not seen much these days. In some areas, signboards carrying a new name ' Article Structures Limited' have been erected. In fact, lawfully, the land beneath the water body being 'khas' belongs to the government. As the relevant government agencies preferred to be indifferent, the plunder of land has been going on unabated. In the meanwhile, filling of the water body in an unplanned manner has been causing serious waterlogging in Mirpur 10, Mirpur 11 and Mirpur 12. —FE photo by K Asad-Uz-Zaman