Weather | Dhaka A parliamentary body yesterday expressed concern over river pollution and asked the industries and environment ministries to take immediate measures to save the rivers, especially the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and the Shitalakhya, from pollution.
The parliamentary standing committee on land ministry also asked the ministries to take measures so that industrial waste, especially of tanneries, do not end up in the rivers.
The committee will sit with high officials of industries and environment ministries in its next meeting to discuss the issue in detail.
The body in its meeting yesterday also asked director general (land record) and deputy commissioners concerned to conduct a fresh survey to identify areas of rivers and canals across the country that have been gobbled up by encroachers so that they could be recovered.
The committee members in the meeting said rivers are the lifelines of Bangladesh and if they cannot be saved, the country will not be saved, meeting sources told The Daily Star.
The three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was held at the parliament building.
AKM Mozammel Huq, chairman of the body, stressed the need for immediate action to protect the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakhya from pollution and land grabbers, sources said.
"We asked the environment and industries ministries to take quick measures to protect the rivers and the environment," Mozammel Huq told reporters at the meeting room after the meeting.
He also said about 1,250 flats would be handed over to homeless people of Bhashantek in the city at a ceremony next month. They were evicted from the slum shanties.
"They [the homeless] will be given bank loans to buy those flats and gradually they will pay off the price in monthly rents," explained Mozammel.
The committee in the meeting asked the authorities concerned to recover 12 city canals, which are now under the clutches of vested quarters.
The committee chief also informed the press that the land ministry has taken a project on "digital mapping" under which digital maps of the entire country will be made and all information about land will be available on a website.
Mozammel Huq also said they have discussed bringing some changes to the vested property act.
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Monday, May 18, 2009 03:01 PM GMT+06:00 (27 weeks ago)
We may not have oil but we do have rivers with two other most gifted things from God ie., our extra-ordinarily talented people and extra-fertile mati (soil). Due to our own (politrickytians' / government's) inefficiency we just simply cannot get best and most out of them.
The innumerable multiple benefits we could yield from just managing rivers efficiently. I would urge lawmakers / government officials (involving our corporate heavyweights) to do everything possible just to manage them efficiently and urgently. The rivers are just like money in a different form in our economy. We have no luxury to waste time for God's sake.