CHATTOGRAM, Oct 21: After remaining suspended for over 2 and a half years, a joint eviction drive against illegal occupiers of Karnaphuli River lands will resume early December next, officials said.
Names of 2,181 illegal occupiers, including organisations and individuals who erected unauthorised structures, constructed illegal buildings and set up various other establishments on both banks of Karnaphuli have been put in a list prepared by the concerned authority of the government, said Galib Chowdhury, executive magistrate of Chattogram district administration, on Wednesday evening.
He said deputy commissioner Md Mominur Rahman has already directed to take necessary action against the river land grabbers whoever they may be. The district administration will start the eviction drive in collaboration with Chattogram City Corporation (CCC), Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and the law-enforcement agencies in the first week of December, he added.
He was speaking with the Financial Express after visiting different spots on both banks of the river, including the Karnaphuli Cold Storage Ghat, on the day.
The eviction drive, which started on Feb 4, 2019 and continued for 6 days before suspended by the concerned authorities on Feb 9 for multiple reasons including legal complications and coronavirus outbreak, is likely to be restarted on Dec 7, sources said.
Contacted, DC Momimnur Rahman told the FE that the drive to evict all 2,181 illegal establishments from the river lands will resume in the first week of Dec next.
He said in many areas on both banks of Karnaphuli, the grabbers have filled up at least 500 metres of the river and set up illegal establishments which have reduced the river to a narrow canal at numerous points, making Karnaphuli, once a mighty river, unfit for navigability.
Despite serving of eviction notices on illegal occupiers several times earlier by the district administration, the eviction drive could not be restarted due to some complicacies, including filing of cases against the drive by the river land grabbers and the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020 and 2021, he said.
Mr Rahman said all complexities are now out of ways and this time all preparations have been taken to take actions against the occupiers. The concerned ministry has already identified the illegal grabbers.
"We shall go for fresh action against the occupiers in collaboration with the CCC and the CPA," he added.
Sources said, Karnaphuli, the lifeline of Chittagong Port, is losing vast chunk of lands on both banks of the water body every day due to illegal occupation, dumping of wastes and siltation since early 1980s.
Karnaphuli River, which was 886.16 metres in width 4 decades ago, has lost a long stretch of water body measuring 500 metres in width on both banks to the illegal occupation in the last 40 years. Chattogram Nodi and Khal Rokka Andolon (CNKRA), a social movement to save rivers and canals, conducted a survey over Karnaphuli recently. According to the survey report of the CNKRA, Karnaphuli has become very lean and narrow in many areas of Chattogram district and the city due to the land grabbing as well as pollution and siltation.
The survey report says, according to the ADB Master Plan and BS survey the Karnaphuli was 886.16 metres wide when the first bridge was constructed over the river in early 80s during then government led by Hossain Muhammad Ershad. But now, the width of Karnaphuli in most areas where its water is flowing has shrunk to only 410 metres. Lands measuring 476 metres in width on both banks of the river have been illegally occupied by the land grabbers.
Earlier, the High Court gave a new directive to the CPA on February 11, 2019 to evict all illegal establishments from the river banks within the next 3 months and disconnect all utilities services including power, gas, piped water and other supply lines to the illegal establishments within the period.
However, after, 3 years and 7-and-a-half-month, the authorities have taken preparation to demolish all 2,181 illegal establishments, including permanent and makeshift structures on the banks of Karnaphuli.
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