Ensure accountability of public employees
The government needs to ensure accountability of its officials and hold them responsible if they fail to execute the directives of apex court on saving rivers, speakers said at a seminar.
Though the prime minister herself is willing to save the country’s rivers and had several times instructed the administration to evict all river grabbers and stop river pollution, the administration has still failed to execute it in the last 10 years as many of the field officers have connections with the offenders, speakers said in a seminar on the River Commission Report-2018.
The seminar, on how to overcome the challenges to implement recommendations’, was organised by the National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) yesterday in its auditorium.
Experts, environmental activists, academicians and civil society members were present in the seminar and exchanged their views on the matter.
Dr Mujibur Rahman Howlader, chairman of the River commission, said that in the last published annual report, the NRCC had enlisted total 49,162 river grabbers in 64 districts.
All the government agencies that were given the responsibility to save the rivers from pollution and encroachments did not do their jobs properly. Lately, they have started evicting encroachers, but only those who are poor.
“Some of the river grabbers are so influential that even the district administrations hesitate to evict them. But in many cases, grabbers and polluters make an underhand dealing with the local administration,” said Mujibur.
The government is also implementing some of the development projects on river lands without assessing the impact on the rivers, the chairman said.
“What they are doing will be a disaster after a few years,” the chairman said and asked all to stand beside the NRCC to save the country’s rivers.
He said the commission currently does not have any executive power. It can just send recommendations to different government agencies to take action against grabbers and polluters.
Advocate Sultana Kamal, president of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) said, the prime minister herself is very willing to save the rivers, but the administration could not build the institutional capacity needed to execute her directions in the field level.
Though the same party is leading the government, headed by the same prime minister for last 10 years, her directions on saving rivers are not carried out. The administrations even violated directions of the apex court in this regard.
Sultana Kamal said, “If necessary the government should lawfully use its forces to evict those grabbers, no matter who they are.”
Rights activist Syed Abul Maksud said the government needs to show its highest level of political commitment to save rivers.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (Bela), suggested that the NRCC request the cabinet division to send directions to all deputy commissioners to free their rivers from encroachment.
Sharif Jamil, general secretary of Bapa, said from his many years’ experience as part of the movement to save rivers, he has reached a conclusion that the government actually does not have any real intention of saving rivers.
“If the government really wants to free the rivers free from encroachment, nobody would able to grab a single inch of any river,” he said, adding that rivers are still being grabbed regularly.
He said that the last time the government made a commitment to save rivers, the Turag, Buriganga and other rivers in Dhaka became narrower as government officials legalised the deeds of river grabbers.
Rezowan Hussain Bhuiyan, of the department of Environment and Geography, Professor Mushfiq Salehin, of Bangladesh University of Engineers and Technology, Mir Sazzad Hossain, former member of Bangladesh India Joint Rivers Commissions, Abu Saleh Khan, executive director of Institute of Water Modelling, Dr Maminul Haque Sarker, adviser to Centre for Environment and Geographical Information Service, and Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Poribesh Bachao Andolon, also spoke in the seminar.
Comments