Turag inherited!

Every piece of papers of the land is "original" and the buyer need not worry or face any problems at all, assures Hazrat Mukhter. There are reasons to trust in him as he works as the assistant of a lawyer. He knows the business.

"Only if the government extends boundary of the river, then they will acquire the land. Otherwise everything is clean," he says.

Hazrat Mukhter was born and brought up in Kamarpara village by the now-reduced Turag. He has many memories about the river.

"Turag was much deeper and wider when I was a schoolboy. I did not dare to take bath in the river," recollects a nostalgic Mukhter when asked how he saw the river in his childhood.

"Now that the Turag has been indiscriminately encroached, it is no longer a mighty river," he continues.

He claims that he has not encroached on the river, but his phone number is available on a signboard erected on the riverbank at Kamarpara bridge point.

The floodplain of the river is the spot where Mukhter has erected the signboard. The place remains under water seven to nine months a year.

"I have inherited some pieces of land from my father and bought some more. Now I am selling some of those," he adds.

He demands Tk 4 lakh for each katha of land and wishes to sell around 20 katha there.

As the city is expanding northwards, the price of land started to shoot up especially since the Dhaka protection embankment was built in the early 90s. Soon some influential quarters from the capital invested huge amount on land and started grabbing the river with the help of the local people.

On the land to be sold by Mukhter there was another signboard just a week ago that read, "The land is booked by Iman Ali and associates".

Contacted over phone, Iman Ali's brother said they were going to buy the land and gave some money to Mukhter in advance.

"We later decided not to buy the land and removed the signboard," he added.

Around 74 decimals of land was developed a couple of years ago beside the land of Uttara University near Kamarpara and Dhaur. The wife of a serving brigadier is the owner of the land just beside the Turag.

Contacted, the military official said he did not fill up the river; rather he filled up his land six feet away from the river area.

"The river is really very narrow out there," the said asking not to be identified.

"I brought engineers from the Water Development Board to measure boundaries of the river and my land so that I don't fill up the river," he added.

"The land I have bought is absolutely private and legal," he said adding recently he got permission from the government to make a road to connect his land with the Dhaka bypass.

The brigadier went on to say he bought soil from the government to fill up his land as the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) dredged the river.

But he could not say the width of the river in the official papers and in reality beside his land.

The brigadier has a plan to do some charity work on that land once he goes on retirement.

Asked about the Wetland and Open Space Preservation Act, 2000, he said he is not aware of the law.