The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) demolished 265 illegal structures, including three belonging to Awami League MP Haji Mohammad Salim, between Saturday and Monday.
BWDB Superintending Engineer Akhil Kumar Biswas said at least 241 such structures were demolished in the first two days of the ongoing crackdown against encroachers.
Confirming the numbers, BWDB’s Executive Engineer (Dhaka Operations and Maintenance Division-II) Dewan Ainul on Monday told the Dhaka Tribune: “Three of the structures were owned by Haji Salim. One of them was even a four-storied one.”
He said they started the drive from Old Dhaka’s Lalbagh to reclaim the encroached land along the 10km-long river protection embankment leading towards Gabtoli.
“We have recovered a stretch of 1,953 metres on the embankment till now,” he said, and added that the drive will resume at 9am on Tuesday.
However, when contacted, Dhaka 7 lawmaker Haji Mohammad Salim could not confirm the BWDB official’s remarks.
His Assistant Personal Secretary Sohel claimed that they did not receive any prior notice from the authorities regarding the drive.
“We still have valid documents for the buildings,” he said, but declined to comment further on the matter.
Earlier, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) on February 5 had demolished several semi-concrete structures owned by Haji Salim.
The BIWTA, too, on Monday dismantled 120 illegal structures, including several multi-storied ones, on the banks of Buriganga and Turag rivers, raising the number of the demolished establishments to 1,620.
Till now, the BIWTA has managed to reclaim at least 16 acres of land.
Amid eviction drives on riverbanks, the government on Thursday also had transferred BIWTA Chairman Commodore Mohammad Mozammel Haque.
30 acres of Dhaleshwari land encroached in Singair
Meanwhile, a report submitted to the High Court on Monday said that some 30 acres of land along the Dhaleshwari River under Dhalla mouja in Manikganj’s Singair upazila were occupied by 37 individuals and organizations.
Of the land, 11.30 acres have been encroached by Manikganj Power Generations Limited alone, said the report placed by the district’s deputy commissioner.
A list of the 37 illegal land grabbers was also submitted before the High Court bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal.
Later, the court fixed February 25 for the next hearing.
On October 22, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh had filed a writ petition with the court, seeking its directives to free the Dhaleshwari River from the clutches of encroachers.
The following day, the court issued a rule and asked the Manikganj deputy commissioner to submit a report within 60 days attaching CS/RS records.
Following an appeal filed by the power plant, the court later ordered a survey in line with the BRS record.
As per the court directives, the local administration of Manikganj district submitted the report with a list of 37 land grabbers.