MAR 10, 2011
The river has changed its style over the last many years, creating land on its one side and swallowing acres on its other, but the records have never been updated in synch with the changes and this has launched a window of opportunity to the land-grabbers who are filling up parts of the river and are passing it off as a change of the river’s course. The latest example of it was the incident that took place on January 31, when the department of environment (DoE), for the first time, arrested two people on charges of grabbing and filling up the river Buriganga at three places.
Situation took a dramatic turn when one of the arrested, Haji Mahbubur Rahman filed a case against the DoE and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) for harassing him and claimed a refund of the Tk 2.61 lakh that a DoE mobile court fined him for grabbing part of the river.
During a recent visit to the spot it was found that the 50-decimal area of the river, which Mahbubur Rahman fenced off with bamboo poles, is still there and the filling up of land with sand bags is still going on.
Rahman claims he is doing nothing illegal. “It's my right to do whatever I like to do with my own land because, as per the documents, the land belongs to me,” he says pointing to the stretch of Buriganga that goes under the Kamrangir Char lohar pool.
Rahman is not wrong. He has all the necessary documents to prove that the part of the river under the Kamrangir Char lohar pool, on which he has erected the fencing, indeed belongs to him.
“My grandfather bought this land of about 200 kathas in 1974. In both the land records office and the district office you will find that the piece of land over which the river now flows is recorded in my grandfather’s name,” he said, adding that he has both British and Pakistani “parchas” (title records) for this part of the river and its adjacent land.
The surveyors of the district commissioner’s office have also legitimized his claim to part of the river on the basis of the British and Pakistani “parchas”.
“I am paying all the taxes for the land on which I have put up the fences. I have all the papers to prove my claim,” Rahman says.
Rahman is not alone. There are many others like him settled along the 17-kilometre stretch of the Buriganga, starting from the river’s confluence with Dhaleswsari at Munshiganj right down to Gazaria where it flows into the Meghna, including the second channel of the river Buriganga beside Kamrangir char.
They have legal documents to prove that the lands along the waterway girdling the Kamrangir Char peninsula belong to them.
BIWTA officials say land prices have soared in the last 10 years and the land-sharks have since been encroaching on the second Buriganga channel, creating one plot after another.
BIWTA officials say they could not touch a single land-grabber during drives against their activity, as they all produced “parchas” and documents, claiming ownership.
DoE sources say that as per the Environment Conservation Act (Amendment), 2010, the river grabbers can be fined up to Tk 10 lakh and jailed up to 10 years. But they file petitions against fine and the cases, as most of them possess legal documents on the lands they own, the sources say, adding that there is a huge pile of such cases in the courts of law awaiting trial.
Rahman is not wrong. He has all the necessary documents to prove that the part of the river under the Kamrangir Char lohar pool, on which he has erected the fencing, indeed belongs to him.
“My grandfather bought this land of about 200 kathas in 1974. In both the land records office and the district office you will find that the piece of land over which the river now flows is recorded in my grandfather’s name,” he said, adding that he has both British and Pakistani “parchas” (title records) for this part of the river and its adjacent land.
The surveyors of the district commissioner’s office have also legitimized his claim to part of the river on the basis of the British and Pakistani “parchas”.
“I am paying all the taxes for the land on which I have put up the fences. I have all the papers to prove my claim,” Rahman says.
Rahman is not alone. There are many others like him settled along the 17-kilometre stretch of the Buriganga, starting from the river’s confluence with Dhaleswsari at Munshiganj right down to Gazaria where it flows into the Meghna, including the second channel of the river Buriganga beside Kamrangir char.
They have legal documents to prove that the lands along the waterway girdling the Kamrangir Char peninsula belong to them.
BIWTA officials say land prices have soared in the last 10 years and the land-sharks have since been encroaching on the second Buriganga channel, creating one plot after another.
BIWTA officials say they could not touch a single land-grabber during drives against their activity, as they all produced “parchas” and documents, claiming ownership.
DoE sources say that as per the Environment Conservation Act (Amendment), 2010, the river grabbers can be fined up to Tk 10 lakh and jailed up to 10 years. But they file petitions against fine and the cases, as most of them possess legal documents on the lands they own, the sources say, adding that there is a huge pile of such cases in the courts of law awaiting trial.
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