Jhinai river branch getting choked up

A branch of the Jhinai river in Tangail's Ghatail upazila is under threat as a group of influential people are choking up the flow of the waterway by making a fish enclosure in it.

Running through Digholkandi union, the river branch, 45 feet in width at most places, is the primary source of irrigation and household water for hundreds of farmers in Shambaria and Digholkandi villages for ages.

But recently, three brothers -- Haider Ali, Harun Miah and Humayun Miah, from Shambiara village -- have started making the enclosure on the waterway with excavators, claiming that the part of the river belongs to them.  

Informed, Digholkandi union land office asked them to hold the work, but to no effect.

If the enclosure is allowed to be completed, the constricted waterway will affect agriculture in hundreds of acres of land downstream, while it will create waterlogging in a vast area upstream during the monsoon, said Akbar Hossain, a resident of Shambiara village.

A bridge nearby is also at risk now as the encroachers are extracting earth by digging near the base of the bridge, he added.

Land office officials in Digholkandi union said considering the waterway's significance to agriculture in the area, the government excavated it in 1991 and several other times before.

Haider Ali, one of the encroachers, claimed that the river branch is flowing through land that belongs to his family.

Rebutting his claim, Digholkandi Union Parishad (UP) Member Hitlu Miah said the crucial waterway is now endangered as a number of locals had been encroaching on it over the past couple of decades by making false land documents.  

 When this correspondent contacted UP Chairman Nazrul Islam for his comments on the allegation, he said he was not aware of the encroachment on the river branch. “I'll see to it,” he assured.

Shamsul Haque, assistant land officer at the union land office, said he already issued directives to stop the enclosure work in the river branch and informed the upazila land office of the matter. 

Ghatail Assistant Commissioner (Land) Noor Nahar Begum said she also directed all concerned to stop the excavation work for the enclosure. “We will take next steps after examining [necessary land] documents," she added.