Railway reclaims land from illegal occupants
Bangladesh Railway in Chattogram yesterday reclaimed around 2.2 acres of its land on Ice Factory Road where a slum had been rebuilt after Railway conducted an eviction drive there in April last year.
During the drive, beginning at 10:00am, the authorities disconnected utility connections of around 300 families living in the area.
For the last four days, railway authorities had been announcing the eviction drive over loudspeakers warning illegal occupants to shift to other places, said Executive Magistrate Touhidul Islam, who led the drive.
He said there was an ongoing legal battle over ownership of some portion of the occupied land and occupants of those parts were not evicted.
Kissinger Chakma, divisional estate officer (DSO) of railway, said, “We demolished more than 350 makeshift houses and establishments. A total of 200 railway workers cleaned up the area and three bulldozers were used.”
“We will put barbed-wire fence around the land within a few days so that it cannot be occupied again,” he added.
Sub-inspector Nurul Alam of Chittagong Metropolitan Police headquarters said four platoons of police from Sadarghat and Kotwali police stations as well as members of railway police and Railway Nirapatta Bahini were deployed.
While visiting the spot, this correspondent saw occupants salvaging their belongings as much as they can.
Occupant Amena said, “My family has been living here for 40 years. We pay our leaders to stay on this land. We paid money to stay here and the government is driving us away.”
She, however, failed to name who “the leaders” were.
Seeking anonymity, a number of locals claimed that influential people of the area in connivance with a section of railway officials used to control the slum and lease out makeshift dwelling.
The DSO told The Daily Star that they had no information about the matter and that they would take departmental actions against those officials if allegations are filed and proved.
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