Editorial
Stop Turag encroachers
Admin must swing into action
THE grabbers have become desperate in their ravenous greed to take hold of as much of the land as possible from the different rivers surrounding the capital city. It has again become glaringly evident from the way they have given a damn about the High Court (HC) verdict of June 24 last as well as government warnings to that effect against encroachments on the rivers surrounding the capital city.
To all appearances, during the last three and half months since the HC order was issued, nothing of substance has been done by the executive branch of the government to act and stop the grabbers from continuing with their wicked activities. Otherwise where does these grabbers get the audacity to defy HC and the government? The land grabbers, whoever they may be, are certainly not from another planet so that they do not understand the message of court or government orders!
If truth be told, it is not for the first time that the land grabbers are at work to eat up a river, in the present case, the Turag. All quarters are fully aware of how some vested quarters are out to gobble up government lands everywhere. During the successive governments in the past as well as after the incumbent one took office, a number of operations were launched to free the Buriganga river from the grip of encroachers. Oddly enough, in every case it was observed that as soon as the magistrates and the members of the law-enforcing agency left the scene, the grabbers would return and start carrying on with their business as usual.
In fact, the government's apparent lack of action to discipline the vested quarters in question has only emboldened them further to go on with their grabbing spree. Unfortunately, such a situation has forced the well-meaning ones to bring the case to court for the second time to issue rule on the government so that it may swing into action to discipline the Turag grabbers.
This is an unacceptable situation. It is time for the government to put its foot down and bring those behind encroachment of Turag and other rivers to justice.
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