No canal grabber will be spared

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayor Sayeed Khokon yesterday said they will not spare anyone who grabs any canal of Dhaka city.

“We will not consider political affiliations of any grabbers, and will take action against them,” said the DSCC mayor while inaugurating the cleaning work of Kutubkhali canal in Jatrabari.

Under the leadership of the Bangladesh Army, a number of illegal structures have been removed from around 73km canal areas of Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra area out of 93kms, he said.

He said they will create flow of clean water recovering all canals from grabbers, so that boats can run through them.

About 20 lakh residents of the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra dam areas live with the risk of water-logging every year due to lack of long-term measures to improve the situation.

The condition of the Kutubkhali canal in Jatrabari is particularly pitiful, as most parts of the 2.1km canal is covered with solid waste.

As waste management is not being run properly, people of the area dump their daily waste into the canal, making the situation worse by the day.

The canal was earlier four to five times wider, but has become just like a drain, said locals, adding that it used to be connected to the Buriganga at Sadarghat.c