The High Court on Thursday asked the authorities to visit the Burganga and Turag rivers and stop all kinds of encroachment and dirt-filling in the rivers at Mirpur and Hazaribagh. The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui also asked the Dhaka metropolitan police commissioner, Dhaka deputy commissioner, director general of the environment department and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chairman to submit a report in this regard to the Supreme Court registrar in seven days after the visit.

The court posted further order on the matter for October 26. The bench passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid on behalf of the rights organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh in pursuant to the High Court verdict delivered on June 25 detailing a series of directives to stop encroachment on four rivers surrounding Dhaka. Moving the petition, Manzill told the court the High Court on June 25 delivered a judgment ordering demolition of all illegal structures and removal of the dirt dumped inside the rivers.

Because of negligence of the officials, encroachment on and dirt-filing in the rivers is still going on, he contended, referring to newspaper reports that covered the incidents of encroachment on the Turag and the Buriganga. In the verdict, the High Court bench of Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice M Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed asked the government to demarcate the boundaries of the four rivers surrounding Dhaka — Balu, Turag, Buriganga and Sitalakhya — according to the cadastral survey in four months and report to the court by December 15.

The court had ordered on-site demarcation of the river boundaries by erecting pillars, demolishing all illegal structures and removing the dirt dumped from inside the boundaries without any discrimination by May 31, 2010. The costs of the demolition of illegal structures and removal of dirt dumped unlawfully may be recovered from the offenders under the Public Demands Recovery Act, the court had said. The court ordered the construction of boundary walls and walkways along the river and planting of trees in rows by May 31, 2011.

It also asked the Dhaka City Corporation, municipalities concerned and the Public Works Department to plant trees along the river areas in their jurisdiction. The officials will be responsible individually if the works are not completed on time, the court had said. The court also ordered the environment and forest ministry to declare the four river areas ecologically critical areas under Section 5 of the Environment Conservation Act 1995.

It had ordered the land ministry to hand over the land within the port limit to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority so that it could take necessary step to look after the river land. The court observed considering the sources of the four rivers and their flow needs, the government should as well dredge the Bangshi and the Dhaleshwari and also the link canals of Tongi, Pungli and Karnapara in five years. The government should form a committee to recommend ways to protect all navigable rivers of the country, it observed.

-New Age