Police housing society fills up canal?
The Police Officers Multipurpose Cooperatives Society has filled up a portion of Boalia canal to set up a housing facility where the Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha (RAJUK) had launched a Tk 50 billion excavation campaign.
RAJUK chairman Abdur Rahman has alleged that the police officers' society had violated the 'water-bodies conservation law'. The RAJUK in April had sent a letter to the society asking it to refrain from filling up the canal, but to no avail.
However, the police officers' society is saying the area they had filled up was actually bought by them and hence no law had been violated.
If the Boalia canal cannot be connected to the 100-feet Kuril-Purbachal canal that is being excavated, it will flood both sides of the Tk 50 billion canal, say experts.
Locals, RAJUK officials and experts say already some parts of Dakkhinkhan, Khilkhet, Kawla, Gulshan, Baridhara, the cantonment, Nikunja and Joar Sahara areas have been experiencing water-logging because of the filling of the canal.
"At some places the Boalia canal is deeper than the river Balu. So, it has to be ensured that its flow does not get affected. Rather there should be dredging to preserve the canal. Since the nearby areas are yet to be fully urbanised, the expenses will be less as well," said Md Ashraful Islam, director of the new Detailed Area Plan (DAP) project.
"We do not know who are behind this, but we will certainly evict the grabbers, even if it needs additional funding," housing and public works minister Mosharraf Hossain said at a programme where the owners of the lands acquired for the 100-feet canal project were handed over their compensation.
"We are digging these canals to address the city's water-logging problem., but they are filling up an entire canal," lamented Md Nurul Islam, director of the 100-feet canal project and a caretaker engineer of RAJUK.
Police officers' society office secretary Gazi Md Mozammel Huq, however, told Prothom Alo, "Although the DAP says the canal is 150 feet wide, as per CS and RS surveys it's 30 feet here and 40 feet there. The canal is there as per the design that was made while acquiring the land. So, there is no chance of filling up the canal."
To this end, RAJUK chairman Abdur Rahman said, "They are not admitting to filling up the canal. But we will go our own way to maintain the flow of the canal. The district administration and survey authorities will hopefully play their part. The public works minister also wants strict action."
*The article, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Quamrul Hassan.