A mobile court yesterday sent a man to jail with one month's sentence for blocking a canal by building a cross dam on it in Kalapara upazila.

Executive Magistrate Anup Das, also the assistant commissioner for land in the upazila, delivered the judgment and posted a sign, on behalf of Patuakhali deputy commissioner (DC), on the bank of the canal.

Abdul Bareq of Betkata village had been depriving locals of the water in Sonatala canal, flowing between Baliatali and Dhulashar unions, by building a dam on five acres of land across the canal for rearing fish, said the magistrate. 

The land administration of the upazila yesterday freed the canal from the encroacher and posted a sign on the DC's behalf. Such drives to evict encroachers from government land will continue, he added.