THE National River Conservation Commission has asked the Dhaka deputy commissioner to cancel land right record of 33 dockyards owners who have illegally occupied the land and built structures on the opposite side of River Buriganga from Sadarghat Ferry Terminal. It appears that politically connected powerful party men have grabbed these lands and developed the dockyards over the years causing regular troubles on the narrow water way and defying every move to evict them.
Reports said these dockyards are choking the river channels and the latest accident involving two vassals in June this year at this location that killed 33 passengers resulted from such illegal river bed occupation. The commission has therefore quite rightly said they must go, they can’t stay anymore.
But question will naturally arise when powerful people like a Jatiya Party MP, a former South City Awami League president and such others are occupying these lands and have built dockyard, how the DC will be able to remove these illegal structures. It needs strong political decision to free the water way to make movement of vessels safe. But the occupants are claiming to have bought the land or inherited it as family property by creating fake ownership documents bribing corrupt survey officials or DC office staff. These lands were previously government properties.
We must say any administrative order will not do and moreover it does not makes sense to take such move every time when an accident takes place in the river way killing people and then become broadly ignored. Earlier similar orders were also issued by the Land Ministry, Shipping Ministry and such others – the latest being in April last year to evacuate the land and remove the dockyard but nothing had worked.
We have noticed whenever an official drive has evacuated illegal structures in the past, these were immediately rebuilt by the occupants in which a section of party men and government functionaries lent support. We must say under this corrupt dysfunctional government; which is always busy to make illegal fortune at every level and grabbing public land most lucrative such moves are destined to fail. We can’t expect too much from a DC unless he gets political backing to achieve the goal.
