Despite High Court directives not to fill any portion of Gulshan-Banani Lake, an influential quarter is out to grab around 10 kathas of the lake land.
On Thursday night, a hired gang of youths and labourers cut down 15 big flowering trees by the lakeside at the end of roads-23 and -23/B in Gulshan.
The same night they fenced in a 10-katha stretch of land with corrugated iron sheets and filled up part of that with rubble. They also put up a signboard that reads ‘The owner of this land is Hasena Banu’, said people living nearby.
Some of the trees felled were several years old, they added.
Visiting the area yesterday, The Daily Star correspondent found a gang guarding the place and allowing no-one inside.
During the last caretaker government rule, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) knocked down illegal structures in this part of the lakeside. They also paved a walkway and planted trees demarcating the area.
In response to a writ petition filed by barrister Omar Sadat, a High Court bench in 2006 ruled against lake-filling.
The grabbers however did not bother to abide by the directive. They continued encroaching on the lake, which was designated an “ecologically critical area” in 2001.
The final hearing on the petition by Omar, a Gulshan resident, will be held on February 17.
“They are desperate to fill up a significant part of the lake before the final hearing,” said Omar.
“Today, someone named Amir left a phone number (01711-594591) to the security guard of my house. He asked him to tell me that I better contact him for negotiations and not continue the litigation,” Omar told The Daily Star yesterday.
Later, this correspondent called the number several times, but found it switched off.
Meanwhile, several dwellers of Korail slums yesterday said the encroachers have hired some 50 labourers to work at night on the weekends to fill lake.
“They have hired so many workers that it seems they want to fence in and fill up more area,” said one of them who did not want his name to be published.
On coming to power in January last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on several occasions announced her government’s stance against encroachment of rivers, lakes and wetlands.
She also directed officials concerned to take drastic actions against grabbers.
But unabated encroachment, waste-dumping and commercial fish farming–all keep contributing to render the lake ecologically dead.
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