Although there are questions about the operations conducted by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to retrieve the occupied rivers around Dhaka, it cannot be said that the drive went in vain. They have also been praised for evicting illegal establishments of influential people and companies and constructing walkways along the river banks.
But it is evident that BIWTA could not stop the occupation of all influential people as the huge empire of Aslamul Haque, the late MP of Dhaka-14 constituency, on the bank of the river on the other side of the Shaheed Buddhijibi Bridge (known as Bachhila Bridge) in Mohammadpur. According to the law, no one should object to development projects if the rivers, water bodies and the environment are not harmed. Aslamul Haque did not follow the rules to build 'Arisha Private Economic Zone' and 'Mayisha Group Power Plant'.
The entire area occupied by the late MP of Dhaka-14 constituency Aslamul Haque (he died on 4 April) lies next to the junction of Turag and Buriganga. MP Aslam blocked the BIWTA eviction drive in March last year as the agency identified the establishments of Waspur and Ghatarchar mouzas in Keraniganj and Shyamlapur mouzas in Savar as illegal. He later went to court.
At the same time, he appealed to the National River Protection Commission to determine whether the land under his project falls within the boundaries of Buriganga or Turag. The commission sent a letter to BIWTA on 23 November 2019 to take steps to evict illegal occupants.
According to their report, the lands occupied by Aslamul Huq include the lands of Buriganga and Turag and the boundary of the port is about 8 acres, the land of the river is about 13 acres. The rest of the land is under Detailed Area Plan (DAP).
Experts now question why the BIWTA is setting up boundaries without rescuing the occupied river. According to them, there are lands of the river beyond the boundary. The question is, is this activity aimed to facilitate the occupiers? It is very unfortunate that the chairman of the company has made a slanted remark that the river commission has done its job, and BIWTA has done its part. Although BIWTA is responsible for the maintenance of the waterways, they do not own the river. By law, the river is owned by the people and the guardians of the river commission.
It is also necessary to find the secret behind the BIWTA's boundary pillars which ignore the river commission. Earlier, BIWTA had done the same thing while setting up the Turag river boundary. Boundary pillars were set up leaving river lands beyond the boundaries.
It seems that the dead MP is much stronger than the living one. Even good initiatives of BIWTA do not succeed due to dishonesty and irresponsibility of a section of officials. The occupiers became reckless. BIWTA has to work in accordance with the recommendations of the river commission. Otherwise, no matter how clever they may be and no matter how clever the eviction campaign may be, there will be a lot of loopholes and it will not be possible to rescue the occupied river lands.