Eviction drive along Karnaphuli, other canals soon

Our Correspondent

CHITTAGONG, July 18: All illegal structures along the River Karnaphuli, its tributaries and other canals in the port city will be removed soon through an eviction drive, local administration has decided in a meeting of the National Task Force on Rivers.

Almost all speakers at the meeting raised voice against building illegal structures along the Karnaphuli River, deemed the lifeline of Chittagong people. The 21st meeting of the National Task Force was held at Chittagong Circuit House on July 16 last.

Shipping Minister M Shahjahan Khan, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, Water Resources Minister Barrister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Moinuddin Ahmed Khan Badal MP, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu MP, Chittagong City Awami League President and former mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Shipping Secretary Syed Monjurul Islam, Divisional Commissioner Md Abdulla, Deputy Commissioner Mesbah Uddin, Director General of Environment Mohammed Alam, Director of Land Record and Survey Anwar Hossain and Director of Environment Jafar Alam, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed, who will coordinate four sub-committees formed in June last to save the water bodies by dredging and demarcating the boundaries and identifying the polluters, gave a horrifying picture of how the Karnaphuli River had been grabbed on both sides of the river. There are 51 canals in Chittagong but many of them have dried up.

Speaking on the occasion Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif urged the government not to close down the Karnaphuli Paper Mills at the prescription of foreigners and cited instance of the North Bengal Paper Mill that had been closed. An ETP should be set up at the Karnaphuli Paper Mill so that the mill's waste could not pollute the Karnaphuli River, he said.

Moinuddin Khan Badal MP proposed forming a separate authority to address the problems of the Karnaphuli River as its morphology is different.