CHATTOGRAM: The Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has been accused of excavating a canal on the private land without serving any notice or paying compensation to the land owners.
The allegation came after the CDA started working on the bank of the Bamonshahi Khal at Panchlaish in the city.
The CDA has undertaken a project worth Tk 56.16 billion (5616 crore) to address the waterlogging problem facing the city dwellers every monsoon.
Under the project, the CDA will re-excavate 16 dying canals around the city to prevent stagnation of water and regulate the flow of flood water.
But some land owners alleged that the government development agency was encroaching on their land while working on the bank of the Bamonshahi Khal.
They have also written to CDA Chairman Abdus Salam, urging him not to encroach on their land.
GM Shahabuddin Khan, one of the land owners in the area, said they urged the CDA to stop the work and settle the issue, because the land were their ancestral property and they had been possessing the land for long.
He also said they were not opposing the project undertaken by the CDA to resolve the waterlogging problem.
They were also ready to give their land for the project if they were paid compensation, he said.
On the other hand, the CDA claims that the land on the banks of the city canals are the government's khas land. They are working on the khas land, not on any private land.
When asked, Chief Engineer of the CDA Hassan bin Shams told the FE that anybody claiming possession of the land should come to the CDA with an application for compensation.
He also said that on receipt of such applications, they would scrutinise the documents and if found that the applicants owned the land, they would be paid thrice the value of the mouza rate of the land in compensation.
The CDA always paid due prices of the acquired land to the owners, he said.
