Rain hampers Chittagong eviction bid

Torrential rain is hampering the Chittagong City authority’s efforts for a second consecutive day to evict people living on dangerous hill slopes. At least four people died when walls collapsed during heavy rains on Thursday and Friday. Around 200 families from the city’s Battali Hill and Motijhorna areas were relocated on Friday amid rain. The city local administration has been asking residents living in ‘risky’ areas to leave before the monsoon. As many as 127 people were killed in six back-to-back landslides in Chittagong after torrential rain on June 11, 2007. Since then, the city authorities are keen to relocate those living on the landslide prone areas before the monsoon intensifies. ‘We have been asking them to move out for the past several weeks,’ Chittagong’s Additional Deputy Commissioner (customs) SM Abdul Kader said. ‘Those who are still living in hill slopes are being evicted as these hills are not safe after heavy downpour. But torrential rain is hampering our drive,’ Kader said. Simultaneous drives were launched in Lalkhan Bazar and Baizid localities on Saturday. Meteorology Department said they have measured 236.4mm rainfall in Chittagong in the last 24 hours ending 3:00pm on Saturday which is a record rainfall of this season. Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP)’s Assistant Commissioner Dipak Jyoti Khisa said residents of Motijhorna, Battali Hill, and Tankir Hill would be relocated. Usually, the local administration’s efforts to evict people living on hillside go in vain as they return to the same place when the rains are over, according to bdnews24.com.