The prospect of restoring the lakes in the city's Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas to their original position seems bleak, as Rajuk has decided to conserve only the submerged areas without upsetting the latest shorelines created by continuous encroachment.
It is not clear why Rajuk is not following the High Court directives on recovering the lost lake land. In July last year, the Court asked Rajuk to survey the lakes and publish a list of illegal occupants. However, nothing has been done in this respect of both. Obviously, Rajuk's plan of working on the latest shorelines, leaving the encroachers in peace, amounts to legitimisation of the unholy scheme of land grabbing. It is also an unconditional capitulation to the land grabbers who have managed to get prime land at the cost of two beautiful lakes. This encroacher-friendly policy is in clear contravention with all wetland laws, not to speak of the HC directives. Such spinelessness in dealing with encroachers will set bad examples, to say the least.
The fallout of allowing the grabbers to get away with land is not hard to predict. The encroachers will feel even more confident and the practice of preparing fake land documents will be further encouraged.
Rajuk appears to be convinced that some of the owners of the filled up land are genuine claimants. However, it is not obvious how such land could be filled up without Rajuk's permission. Rajuk has to take note of the High Court directive that the legal and bona fide owners of land in lake areas be given due compensation. What is not acceptable here is to allow the landowners possessing fake and dubious documents to go unpunished, only because some owners might be genuine.
The city development authority has conveniently decided not to disturb the status quo. It is not known how the illegal occupants of lake land, and there are many, could influence Rajuk's decision making process and force it to take such an inexplicable position on land recovery. Obviously, Rajuk has full support of the country's highest judiciary in its mission of land recovery. So, why are things going wrong?
Political will of the government will have to be brought to bear on the issue of land recovery. Since the HC orders are all for corrective and determined action, the government should not find it difficult to deal with the encroachers. Determined and quick action is needed to dislodge the grabbers of lake land.