Drive to free Ichamati river starts today
The district administration in cooperation with the Water Development Board (WDB) authorities will start the long awaited eviction drive today to free the Ichamati river flowing through the district town.
Primarily the drive will be conducted according to the list of 285 illegal occupiers, prepared by the WDB and the district administration a decade ago, said Md Mosharaf Hossain, assistant director of WDB, Pabna.
“Besides, a recent feasibility study has found a large number of occupiers. The entire river will be freed from illegal occupiers as the Ministry of Water Resources has taken a mega project to make the river alive by freeing it according to the CS map,” he added.
Starting in Pabna’s Shibrampur, the Ichamati runs an 84 kilometre course across the district before meeting the Jamuna in Bera upazila. But the river is now hardly visible in its nine kilometre area in Pabna municipality due to illegal occupation and building of structures for decades.
According to the government’s Cadastral Survey (CS) records published in 1922, the 9-km section of the river that flows through Pabna municipality had 88.58 acres of riverbed.
But the area dropped to only 54.53 acres, as shown in the most recent Bangladesh Survey (BS) record map in 2013, said officials at the district settlement office.
“The eviction drive will continue to free the river according to the CS map. We earlier served notice and made a general announcement to free the river lands within December 22,” said Kabir Mahmud, deputy commissioner of Pabna.
Meanwhile, a large number of illegal occupiers have already shifted their furniture from homes, many of them also demolished their concrete buildings to take doors, windows and bricks.
Visiting Sadhupara, Mondolpara and Kacharipara areas of the town yesterday morning, this correspondent saw many people removing their structures from the river lands with their own efforts.
A large number of people, to be affected by the eviction drive, yesterday formed a human chain in front of Pabna Press Club and also brought out a procession in the district town protesting the administration’s move.
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