Another canal being killed

As reported in this paper on November 4, a canal at Lautola Kanchabazar in the Basila area, that used to connect to several other water bodies in Dhaka city and the Turag River, is being rapidly filled up to construct a bus terminal. Our question is twofold: since the DC office did not give permission to fill up the canal who allowed the Bangladesh Inter-district Truck Drivers’ Union and Dhaka Inter-district Truck Owners’ Association to do so? Secondly, why is the DC office silent when the law is being flouted? What has given the federation of truckers in Bangladesh the power and sense of impunity to flout the rules?

It is understood that the DC office had been asked to find a suitable location for the bus terminal, probably khas land, which it failed to do. Does that give truckers’ associations carte blanche to go ahead and fill up a canal – it is not their property to begin with. Only yesterday, we wrote an editorial on the ludicrous demand of realtors to RAJUK that it should forget about water bodies; that we do not need these for the city, and the encroachment by them should be accepted.

Are the authorities to turn a blind eye to such illicit activity and blatant disregard for law, and allow public land and water bodies to be grabbed? If that is the case, where does it all stop? We can only hope that the administration wakes up from its slumber before we lose the canal completely.

Source: The Daily Star