Poultry farm in rly shed for 10 years
Adjacent to Shamsernagar Railway Station in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar there is a shed where, as one might expect, tools and supplies for the railway are supposed to be housed. For the last ten years the building has operated instead as the site of illegal poultry farms, with railway officials seemingly unable to evict the encroachers.
“They sell chickens from the railway warehouse,” casually notes local resident Mizanur Rahman.
“The general area has been polluted by these farms for a decade,” says the general secretary of the local environment journalist forum, Nurul Mohaimin Milton. “Residents have set up several commercial enterprises on railway land.”
It is well-understood that running businesses on railway land is illegal but it's a situation to which local Bangladesh Railway authorities have had to become accustomed. “The railway can't take any action,” says local Mohammad Ali, “Influential people back the hawkers.”
“For a decade I've been running poultry farms in the red warehouse on a lease from the railway office,” says one proprietor, Nurul Islam, who couldn't show any document to support his claim.
Sahed Ahmed, who founded another commercial establishment beside the main warehouse, similarly says his business is sited on leased land and is therefore not illegal.
Shamshernagar's station master, Kabir Ahmed Lal, disagrees. “These commercial activities are being carried out without any permission or lease from the railway. Rather they are supported by an influential local. Railway police have been informed. Their assistance in proceeding with evicting the commercial enterprises has been sought, but we've had no reply.”
When asked if his own staff collect monthly tolls from the hawkers, which several locals alleged, the station master denied the allegation. “It isn't true,” he says. “If anyone catches any of my staff doing such a thing I will personally reward them.”
The assistant estate officer with the Bangladesh Railways responsible for Shamsernagar, Md Ahidun Nabi, says he took the post only recently. “To the best of my knowledge no land in that area has been leased out by the railway,” he says. “The establishment of poultry farms and other commercial enterprises on railway grounds will have to be examined.”
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