63,000 grabbers feasting on river lands in 64 dists Reports NRCC

About 63,000 encroachers have kept riverbanks under their illegal occupation in the 64 districts across the country, according to Mujibur Rahman Hawlader, chairman of the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC), reports bdnews24.com.

He briefed the media and took questions after presenting its annual report for the year 2019 on Tuesday.

Khulna tops the list of the divisions with highest number of river encroachers - 11,245, while Sylhet has the lowest - 2,044. In Dhaka, the number is 8,890.

In the report for 2018, the commission said the number of river encroachers was over 57,000.

The authorities have removed as many 18,579 encroaching structures in the past year, according to the report, which cited a lack of manpower to free the rivers.