Shibbaria canal in grabbers' grip
Ruling party men building market on it
Land grabbers allegedly belonging to ruling party have filled up land of Shibbaria canal in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali and started construction of a market there.Photo: STAR
Shibbaria canal near Chaplee Bazar in Kalapara upazila under the district is getting narrowed as ruling party men have filled up land of the canal for construction of a market. Mostafizur Rahman Bhuiyan, organising secretary of Dalbuganj union unit of Awami League (AL), and his partner Hakim Ali started work for a market construction on Shibbaria canal at Chaplee Bazar over two weeks ago but the local administration is yet to take any action to stop the illegal act. Five people led by a local Jubo League leader are also filling up a nearby land to construct another market. Squeezing of the canal will make it difficult for trawlers to enter the water body, causing trouble for fishermen who use it as shelter during natural disasters like cyclones and tidal surges, said locals. During a visit the spot a few days ago, a group of journalists from Kalapara saw that work for construction of a 60-foot-long and 40-foot-wide market building on the canal bank beside the iron bridge at Chaplee Bazar was going on while a nearby place is being filled up with sand extracted by dredgers from the nearby river. "The canal, about two kilometres from the Bay, is of great importance especially to local fishermen as they can take shelter with their boats during storms and cyclones," said Md Nur Daraj, locally known as Bhutto Jomaddar, secretary of Chaplee Bazar committee. "But the canal is getting narrowed due to land grabbing to build business establishments illegally. We informed local land officials at Mohipur but they did not take any step to stop the canal grabbing," he said. When contacted, AL leader Mostafizur Rahman Bhuiyan said, "I am constructing a market on the land that I bought from some Julfikar Ali of Nayakata village for Tk 3 lakh some days ago. But local people claimed that the land is khas land." Md Mahbubur Rahman, assistant commissioner (Land) in Kalapara, said, "Nobody informed me of the matter. I will investigate the matter and take step to evict all grabbers from the land, if the allegation is found true."
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