Riverbank lease chokes up Shitalakkhya
Pinaki Roy
Influential people, including lawmakers, have been taking the Shitalakkhya bank on a 99-year lease from the government and filling up the river to put up their businesses changing the river's course at will. A ruling BNP lawmaker has long been running stone processing plants along the riverbank under the Kanchpur bridge and another industrialist legislator has put up a raft of industries in the Shitalakkhya by taking lands on permanent settlement. "I got the land from the land ministry under a permanent settlement in 1987 to establish my stone processing industry. The government allocated me one acre and 95 decimals," said Giasuddin Ahmed, a lawmaker for Narayanganj. He said he also took permission from the Board of Investment too. He told The Daily Star that a ruling BNP lawmaker got 16 acres of land on the riverbank under the settlement. The course of the Shitalakkhya has narrowed down and changed under the Kanchpur bridge as the encroachers have filled up more than 100 feet to make a jetty to unload stones from Sylhet. The entire riverbank is a hive of stone crushing activity and local residents allege much of the activity cause harm to the river. "The government can allow change in natural water body if it does not hamper public interest. The government can do it on its own too for the sake of public interest, but before doing so it has to issue a statement," said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, director (programme) of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association. Lawmaker Giasuddin has been operating the biggest plant, Kassaf Stone Processing Plant, for 20 years. Besides running his industry, he lends his stone crushing machines to other plant owners who have encroached more than one kilometre of the Shitalkkhya riverbank there. As many as 30 stone processing plants have thrived on the riverbank under the Kanchpur bridge. The owners of the plants buy stones from Sylhet and crush them into small pieces for sale to the construction industry. Lawmaker Giasuddin told The Daily Star that not only him but also others got the riverbank from the government on the 99-year lease. The owners operate 26 stone-processing machines what make thunderous sound throughout the day, causing both noise and air pollution. Five of the 26 machines are run by Giasuddin, his employees said requesting anonymity. Besides Kassaf, Harun and Brothers, Shafik, Soudia, Nurul Amin, Alam Enterprise stone processing plants also operate there. "Generally nobody can allocate river banks to establish industry. But it was given to them long ago, not in my tenure," said Ukil Abdus Sattar, state minister for land. The Narayanganj district administration took many initiatives to save the river, but the efforts fell flat because of the industrialists' cosy links with top government officials. "The river has been narrowing down and drying up because of the industries. They have been running the business for years taking permission from the government," said Harun Ur Rahsid, deputy commissioner of Narayanganj.
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