Blaming military dictatorships for filling up Dhaka's rivers and canals, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said that the river grabbers have to be exposed.
The Awami League government recovered some rivers after coming to power, she said.
The premier made the remarks at a press conference held at Ganabhaban on Monday afternoon on the outcome of her recent three-nation visit to Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom from April 25 to May 9.
The prime minister said that Panthpath was once a canal. There was also a beel where Bashundhara city shopping complex and Sundarban Hotel are now. People needed to use boats to come to Dhanmondi Mirpur Road.
The Panthapath canal was filled. There were various canals in Dhaka including Hatirjheel Canal, Segunbagicha Canal, Shantinagar Canal, she said.
The premier also mentioned that later those canals were converted into box culverts. As long as there were ponds and canals in Dhaka, the air in Dhaka was cool. Those ponds, canals were filled to erect large buildings there.
“I managed to save two after coming to power,” she said.
The prime minister said: “if we want to talk about river grabbers, we have to talk about military dictators first. Starting from the period of Ayub Khan, then Ziaur Rahman, Ershad, and Khaleda Zia…they destroyed the rivers when they came. Housing was built filling the reservoir. After the Awami League government came to power, we saved some of them. I have canceled many projects.”
“But I am saying that development projects can be done by keeping the reservoir,” she added further.