WDB in slumber for four decades
For nearly four decades, encroachers and trespassers have been tightening their grip on about nine acres of lucrative land, belonging to Water Development Board (WDB), near Mohipur fish landing station in Kalapara upazila.
But the WDB, despite preparing a list of 31 encroachers three months ago, has yet to evict the illegal occupants from the property that is worth several crores of taka.
In the 60s, when the land was acquired, six buildings were built for offices of WDB and housing facilities for its staff members. But, with the closing down of WDB's operations at Mohipur, at least 40 years ago, the entire area including the buildings were left in an abandoned state.
The empty buildings and the large piece of land then gradually started to fall in the clutches of encroachers. In order to keep the possession of the property, many of them rented out rooms in the rundown buildings or portions of the land to landless or low-income families.
During a visit, the occupants were found living in the decades-old buildings ignoring the risk of collapse any time. Many of the residents made tin fences around parts of the buildings, while others even built tin-roofed houses on the WDB land.
Day labourer Kalam Mridha lives with his family in one of the abandoned buildings. Asked why he was putting lives of his family members in danger by staying there, he said, "We're landless people. We risk our lives despite knowing that this is government property, as we have nowhere else to go. We'll leave whenever the government asks us to go."
When asked, resident of a tin-roofed house said her husband, who is a barber, pays Tk 1,500 monthly rent to the house owner, Barek Talukder.
Barek however did not agree to comment over her claim when this correspondent approached him.
The claim made by Hosne Ara Begum, another resident of one of the buildings, was quite intriguing.
She said the government had acquired five acres of her land for WDB. The land where she is staying now belongs to her because it has been left in an abandoned state for a while.
Momin Sikder, an elderly resident of Bipinpur, a neighbouring village, said the value of the WDB land rose considerably in recent times -- thanks to an increased business activity in the area centring the Mohipur fish landing station.
In his opinion, that is the reason why many of the greedy locals have their eyes on the property.
Another senior citizen, Mohammad Mostafa, said the WDB needs to put a stop to the squandering of public money and endangerment of lives.
Contacted, Office Surveyor Tariqul Islam at Kalapara office of WDB said illegal occupants enter the property by breaking the barbed wire fences that they had put up around it.
However, a process is under way to evict the encroachers and they already made a list of 31 encroachers for the purpose, he added.
Kalapara WDB's Executive Engineer Khan Mohammad Waliuzzaman said the eviction drive would begin soon.
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