High Court orders eviction of 74 illegal establishments along Buriganga

The High Court has ordered the authorities concerned to evict 74 illegal structures identified by the Survey Department in the Adi Channel (original channel) of the Buriganga River in Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar areas within three months.

The High Court has asked the deputy commissioner of Dhaka and the chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to submit a report to the court after evicting the illegal establishments by 26 June.

A High Court bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Thakur and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order on Thursday after hearing a petition in this regard by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).

Lawyer Manzil Morshed appeared for the writ petitioner, while Advocate Amatul Karim appeared for Department of Environment during the hearing.

On 12 October last year, the High Court directed the director general of the Land Record and Survey Department to survey the original channel of the Buriganga River (Hazaribagh-Kamrangirchar) and submit a report with the names and addresses of the river grabbers. The report was submitted on Thursday as per the order.

Lawyer Manzil Morshed said, "In a public interest litigation filed by the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) to stop illegal occupation of four rivers and evict illegal settlements, Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Mamtajuddin Ahmed ruled in 2009 to evict the occupiers after surveying the river area."

The original channel of the Buriganga River in the Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar areas were left out of the survey conducted as per that order, so the HRPB petitioned in 2015 to identify the illegal river occupants in that area in another survey.

After the hearing on that petition, a bench of Justice Mirza Hossain Haider directed government to determine the boundary of the river area and submit a report to the court.

Later, in a supplementary application on behalf of HRPB, the High Court directed the Survey Department to submit the list of occupants of the Buriganga River in Hazaribagh-Kamrangirchar area.

After the Survey Department submitted the list of river grabbers, the court on Thursday ordered the eviction of the illegal installation.