Jirani canal grabbers evicted
Authorities in a joint drive today freed the Jirani canal from the clutches of land grabbers in Khilgaon of Dhaka.
Dhaka District Administration, Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority jointly conducted the eviction drive and removed 250 illegal structures, including 52 shops at Nandipara’s Zilla Parishad Market on the canal during the drive.
Jirani canal is one of the 11 canals under DSCC.
The drive was inaugurated by DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon, said DSCC Executive Magistrate Khan Mohammad Nazmus Shoaib.
“The canal was recovered by demolishing the structures that were constructed between Nandipara Bridge and Trimohoni,” said Shoaib, who led the eviction.
To make Dhaka clean and green, the drive started around 12:50pm today at the instruction of the prime minister, the mayor said during the drive.
Earlier in a meeting, the mayor announced that a drive would be started today (February 6) to save the 11 canals under DSCC from illegal possessions.
“The owners of the illegal structures were aware of the drive since the meeting. Some of them have also removed their structures before starting the drive” Md Shofikul Islam, Awami League president of Dokkhingaon unit, told The Daily Star.
He said people are happy with the drive as they want the canal free from encroachment.
However, several of the illegal structures were given temporary lease by the Dhaka DC office.
Abdul Jabbar, an owner of five shops among the illegal ones, said he took the shops lease from the DC office at Tk 35,000.
“I applied for the renewal of the lease again which was expired last year but the application is still pending,” he said.
Shop owners at Zilla Parishad Market said they did not remove their goods before the drive as they thought their shops would not be evicted due to being at a “government’s market”.
“We thought we won’t come under the drive for which we didn’t pay any heed to remove goods from the shops before the drive,” said Saddam Hossain, nephew of the owner of a shop named Sayema Enterprise, who was among many others busy clearing the shops.
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