Eviction Drive: BIWTA ignores MP’s resistance, presses on

On the second day of an ongoing eviction drive yesterday, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority ignored resistance from Dhaka lawmaker Aslamul Huq and continued recovering a large area of the Buriganga river in Charwashpur near Basila Bridge.

The lawmaker earth-filled a total of 20 acres of the river when he built two extensions to his Maisha power plant -- the Dhaka North Power Plant and Dhaka West Power Plant -- and a sprawling leisure retreat, said BIWTA Joint Director AKM Arif Uddin.

As the BIWTA team started the drive yesterday morning, the lawmaker came to the area with around 80 people and asked the executive magistrate to stop the drive, Arif said.

"They were forced to flee the scene as law enforcers chased them away, and we continued the eviction," Arif told The Daily Star.

The lawmaker had earth-filled 15 acres area of the river's main channel at the confluence of the Buriganga and Turag rivers, and 5 acres of a Buriganga offshoot in Chawrashpur, he said.

Arif added that the structures built by Aslamul, lawmaker of Dhaka-14 (Mirpur), have blocked the entire 450-feet breadth of the Buriganga offshoot that stretches 14 kilometres across Hazratpur and converges with Dhaleswari river.

As a result, that branch of the Buriganga is now dead and has been grabbed by other encroachers, he said, adding that all the grabbed areas of the river are documented in the Cadastral Survey (CS).

After the first day of the drive on Tuesday, Arif told The Daily Star that the encroachment violated the Water Body Conservation Act 2000 and Bangladesh Environment Protection Act 1995.

Contacted by The Daily Star over phone yesterday, Aslamul admitted there might have been some encroachment, but he also said that the BIWTA issued two clearances in 2011 and 2015 in his favour, paving the way for him to set up the power plants.

"We may have encroached on the river with the embankment slope and boundary fencing," Aslamul said.

According to the lawmaker, the shipping ministry conducted a joint survey of the river area near his power plants several months ago but he did not know what the findings of the survey are.

"They must carry out the eviction in accordance with the latest survey findings but I am in the dark about the findings," said the lawmaker.

In reply to his claims, Arif said that BIWTA was not evicting any part of the Maisha power plant, for which Aslamul had obtained a clearance. The problem was with the Dhaka North Power Plant and Dhaka West Power Plant as they were encroaching on the river.

BIWTA has so far evicted 23 structures at the site and recovered three acres of the river.