Fresh drive to free Shibbaria River from encroachers
Patuakhali district administration removed four more illegal structures from Shibbaria riverside in Kalapara upazila in the district yesterday.
A mobile court led by Abdul Wadud, an executive magistrate, carried out the eviction drive at 10am.
Earlier, 43 illegal structures were demolished on the same spot in a drive on November 29 this year.
In yesterday drive, four illegal structures owned by Abul Kalam Musulli, Abul Hasem, Sonjoy Da and Afzal Hossain, all business establishments, were demolished, mobile court sources said.
"We will remove all illegal structures from both sides of the river where over 100 such structures had been built said, Suren Chandra, assistant land officer at Mohipur land office.
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) filed a writ petition with the High Court (HC) on October 12 this year seeking steps against the grabbers who built illegal structures on both sides of the river.
The district administration issued 10 notices to the occupiers asking to remove their structures within 7 days and 10 more notices were under process.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star published a report on grabbing of the river on January 22 following which the administration started the drive against the offenders.
The report said, Shibbaria, the river adjacent to the Bay near Kuakata, is being used as a safe shelter by fishing trawlers during disasters like flood, cyclone and tidal surge.
Local influential people built over 150 establishments on the both sides of the river at Mohipur and Alipur, both are fish landing stations, about 3 km north off Kuakata. Besides, there are over 500 other such illegal set-ups. As a result, the 28-km long river has been becoming narrow and losing its navigability.
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