Chittagong authorities sever illegal power connections

The Chittagong district administration on Tuesday shut down power connections to 18 illegal slums at Motijharna in Lalkhan Bazar to avert possible landslide-related casualties during the monsoon season. The local administration issued warnings to residents after stationing a mobile court in the area. Many slums have emerged on the slopes of hills where people with lower incomes, such as garment workers, rickshaw pullers and day labourers reside. Politically influential people have also built slums on government land and rent them out. “As part of regular monitoring, the people living in vulnerable conditions on the slopes were served warnings. We have asked the residents to move to safer places,” said  Achhiya Khatun, executive magistrate of Chittagong district administration, who led the mobile court. Landslides triggered by heavy downpour in and around Chittagong have claimed 194 lives in the last nine years. Thousands of slum dwellers still continue to live in vulnerable areas of the port city. At least 127 people lost their lives in a single catastrophic landslide in June 11, 2007.