A 3-day-long drive to free River Sitalakhya from earth-filling at Shimrail of Shidhirganj in Narayanganj ended on Thursday.
Bangladesh Inland Water Authority and the district administration jointly arranged the drive which removed deposits of earth-filling portion of the river in the area.
Thirty-five structures, which were erected illegally on the bank of River Sitalakhya at Shimrail, were removed in the 3-day-long drive, started on Monday.
The people-made chars in the riverbed were disrupting the navigation in the river, the authority said.
The eviction team used excavator (earth cutting machines) and sand carrier bulkhead.
Port officer of Narayanganj, Alamgir Kabir, said that the grabbers had built a sand bed occupying half area of wide of the river at Shimrail where they anchored sand laden trawler and worked of load and unload trading causing obstruction of navigation in the river.
On duty executive magistrate, Johirul Islam, who led the drive, said that they had taken 3-day-long programme to free River Sitalakhya from earth-filling.
But it would not possible within the fixed date, he said
The port officer Alamgir Kabir said that the local influential people had made artificial char in the river approximate 3 lakh square feet area which was not possible to remove in three days.
The Narayanganj deputy commissioner, Md Samsur Rahman, said that they would take further eviction programme.
During the eviction the armed police and RAB members were on duty to tackle any untoward situation.
Authorities have identified around 60 unauthorised traders who have been dealing in sand, stone and boulders destroying river foreshores in Shimrail, Anti, Joka, Siddhirgonj and Ruposhi moujas by filling up the river bed and foreshores.
The executive magistrate Jahirul Islam said that the district administration would undertake further drive next week to free the river from earth-filling.
Source : New Age
