Protect canals, playgrounds

The High Court yesterday directed the government to take necessary steps immediately to protect canals, playgrounds and parks across the country.
In response to a writ petition, the court ordered five top government officials to instruct the district administration to take steps in this regard and submit, after complying with the directives, a report before it within 30 days.
The five officials, asked to implement the order, are secretaries to the ministries of local government and rural development, environment, water resources, and finance, and chairman of the Water Development Board.
The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain came up with the order after hearing the petition filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh on April 28.
The petition stated that the district administration is supposed to take measures to protect canals, playgrounds and parks as per the Environment Protection Act, 1995 and the Water Bodies Conservation Act, 2000.
But influential people are grabbing canals and filling the water bodies with earth in different parts of the country, violating law, as the district administration is not taking appropriate action against them, it said.
The petition also said the encroachment on and filling of the canals and water bodies are damaging to the environment.
The petitioner's counsel Manzill Murshid prayed to the court to pass necessary orders on the government to save the country's canals, playgrounds and parks as per relevant law.
Deputy Attorney General Biswojit Roy represented the government.
On April 7 last year, the HC had directed the authorities concerned to ask the district administration to take steps to protect the canals in the country.
The court had also asked for explanation from the authorities as to why they should not be directed to save the canals and recover them from encroachment as per records of Revisional Survey and Bangladesh Survey.
About the order, Manzill Murshid said no agencies except for the land ministry have executed the directives.