RAJUK recovers three acres of its land evicting a market

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK) on Monday evicted a market that was cropped up illegally in RAJUK Uttara Apartment Project area at sector 18 in Dhaka. There were nearly 100 shops in the market.  

RAJUK implementation-6 executive engineer, Hafizul Islam, said they have recovered three acres of occupied land by conducting a drive on Monday. The eviction drive, led by the executive magistrate, Shamsul Haque, was started around 9:00am and ended around 1:30 pm.

Hafizul Islam told Prothom Alo that "Nearly 100 acres of lands have been earmarked for constructing commercial flats at the third phase of RAJUK project. These lands are occupied by the people for a long time. We are conducting drives at different occasions to recover the lands. As a part of the drive, we conducted a drive on Monday to the Panchabati area in the vicinity of the RAJUK Uttara Apartment Project at sector 18."  

"An illegal market cropped up in the area in the last three and four months. There were nearly 100 shops in the market. The amount of land is about three acres."

He said, "Earlier, we conducted eviction drives several times, but could not resist the illegal occupation. This time, we have enclosed the area with a bamboo fence. I have asked the employees to cultivate vegetables in the area. They live inside the project area."       

Issuing a warning to the illegal occupiers, Hafizul said, "We have sought help from the police so that nobody can occupy the land illegally. We are trying to keep the land free of usurpation as long as the land is not sold through auction."  

"The government has to spend a lot of money to conduct a day-long eviction drive. So, conducting drives is a waste of money", the executive engineer added.