CHATTOGRAM: Three government bodies will jointly start fresh eviction drive soon against all unauthorised establishments on Karnaphuli River banks which remained stopped since February 2019 due to coronavirus outbreak and other reasons.
They took the decision after the 2,181 illegal occupiers of the river bank failed to vacate the grabbed government lands despite getting legal notices multiple times from the concerned authorities in this regard in the last three years.
Meanwhile, legal notices have been served to three organisations - Karnaphuli Ship Builders, Sea Resources Company and Bangladesh Fish Development Corporation - to return Karnaphuli River land they occupied last month.
Supreme Court lawyer Sayed Ahmed Kabir issued the notices on behalf of the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA). Contacted, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Chattogram Muhammad Momimnur Rahman said: "We are ready to take actions against the illegal occupiers of Karnaphuli River banks. The concerned ministry has already started identifying the river banks grabbers. We shall start fresh action against the occupiers in collaboration with the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA)."
Sources said, BELA separately issued a legal notice against Karnaphuli Ship Builders, Sea Resources Company and Bangladesh Fish Development Corporation to hand over the grabbed land to the concerned authorities. In the notice, Supreme Court lawyer Sayed Ahmed Kabir said that the three organisations had built establishment filling the Isa Nagar Canal near Karnaphuli River which is a criminal offence.
Earlier, the High Court issued a directive to the CPA on February 11, 2019, to free the banks of Karnaphuli River from illegal occupation within three months and take steps to ensure that all utilities services including gas, power, water, etc. disconnected from the unauthorised entities.
According to the sources, after several years of legal processes, the district administration had started drives to evict the 2,181 establishments on February 4, 2019 which continued till Feb 9. Then, the authority suspended the drive saying they needed more preparations to evict the unauthorised structures and entities.
Talking with the FE, General Secretary of Bangladesh Environment Forum Aliur Rahman said: "It is unfortunate that the drive was suspended for unknown reason. But, we demand that fresh drives start as early as possible to save the Karnaphuli River and its eco-system."
Environment activist Professor Dr Idris Ali said, "The authorities concerned declared that they would evict all 2,181 illegal establishments from the Karnaphuli River bank. But, they are yet to evict the illegal establishments. We demand to complete the eviction drive."
