Land allocation for RAB cancelled

The government has decided to cancel the allocation of a seven-acre land for the office of the RAB-10 on the bank of the River Buriganga at Kamrangirchar on the outskirts of the capital city of Dhaka.

The government also decided to allocate the land in any other location to set up the office of the Rapid Action Battalion-10 (RAB-10).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Ministry of Shipping held at the Secretariat on Monday, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told reporters after the meeting.

He said that five concerned ministers visited the site on Sunday and later realised that the ongoing works for restoring the main channel of the River Buriganga from illegal grabbers and pollution would be hampered if the land was allocated to the elite crime bustling force to set up its office along the riverside.

So the government decided to allocate another site for the RAB-10 office, Shajahan said.

The minister said that the meeting formed a committee to launch a drive against unabated encroachment and establishment of illegal construction on the Buriganga riverbank in a bid to restore the main channel of the river.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) chairman Shamsuddoha Khandaker was made the chief of the committee.

Shajahan said that the committee would devise plans to evict the illegal encroachers and implement the plans. The panel would start functioning from next June.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain presided over the meeting which was attended by Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, Food Minister Qamrul Islam, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman and local lawmaker Hazi Mohammad Selim.