The district administration and Chittagong Metropolitan Police jointly conducted drives to evict hillside dwellers from risky hills in Chittagong city for the second consecutive day yesterday.
Due to continuous heavy rain since Friday, the authorities started the eviction drive as there is a possibility of mudslides and casualties, said district administration and police sources.
Earlier on June 17, Chittagong district administration decided to conduct eviction drives of the risky hills of Chittagong before Ramadan. The eviction started a bit earlier because of recent heavy downpour.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (revenue) SM Abdul Quader, member secretary of Hill Management Committee in Chittagong district, told the Dhaka Tribune that as there was a possibility of mudslides in the city due to heavy rainfall, the campaign was started asking the hill-side dwellers to take shelter in nearby school buildings and cyclone centres.
Dipak Jyoti Khisha, assistant commissioner of Panchlaish circle of the CMP, said they started the eviction in Motijharna, Batali Hill and adjoining hilly areas around 8:30am. Around hundred policemen and fire brigade personnel took part in the drive and the additional deputy commissioner led the drive.
Besides, eviction programmes was also conducted in Bayezid and Akbar Shah areas, said Mohammad Shahidullah, additional deputy commissioner of CMP (North Zone).
He said the eviction would continue till every hill-side dwellers was evacuated to a safe place.
Earlier, district administration evicted around 200 families from the city’s Motijharna area, a risky hill slope, and sent them to nearby school buildings.
Mezbah Uddin, Chittagong deputy commissioner, said executive magistrate and law enforcing agencies were jointly conducting the campaign.
Most of evicted families went back to their risky residences at night,
but the authorities forced them to stay at school building to avoid any kind of casualty, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Abdul Quader.
The Hill Management Committee of Chittagong district administration had already identified 30 risky hills, while 666 families are detected as most vulnerable in 11 hills out of the 30 risky hills.