Over 49,000 river grabbers in 64 dists
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury yesterday in parliament disclosed a statistics of 49,558 river grabbers across the country with the highest 5,906 grabbers in Cumilla district.
The junior minister placed the statistics in parliament replying to a question from Awami League MP Abdul Latif.
The second highest number of illegal occupants of rivers is in Chattogram (4,704) while the third highest is in Noakhali (4,499), the minister said in a scripted answer.
The other districts with highest river grabbers are Kushtia (3,134 grabbers), Barishal (2,272), Mymensingh (2,160), Faridpur (1,883), Barguna (1554), Natore (1,541) and Gopalganj (1,399), according to the statistics.
The five districts with lowest number of river grabbers are Lalmonirhat (13 grabbers), Khagrachhari (26), Rajbari (26), Rangpur (30) and Bogura (40).
Mahmud said the lists of river grabbers, prepared by the deputy commissioners of 64 districts, were made public at the website of National River Protection Commission and all district portals.
“The deputy commissioners have been given directives to conduct drives against the grabbers,” he said.
He also informed lawmakers that the eviction drives have already started in different districts including Jhalakathi, Manikganj and Kishoreganj.
The state minister said a total of 1,027 illegal structures were evicted from Dhaka and Narayanganj river port areas during special drives conducted in seven days last year (December 18-24). Mahmud said around 21.5-acre river land was recovered during the drives.
In reply to another question from AL MP Benjir Ahmed (Dhaka-20), the state minister said six projects are now ongoing to increase navigability of the rivers.
The projects include capital dredging on 53 inland river routes (Phase-I: 24 River Routes); digging 12 important river routes; and reviving and developing navigability of old Punarbhaba, Brahmaputra, Dharla and Tulai rivers.
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