‘Don’t lease out rivers’

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan has instructed deputy commissioners (DCs) not to lease out riverine land without the ministry’s permission.

The instruction has been given to stop the growing trend of encroaching riverine land and to prevent pollution.

Shajahan was addressing district administrators on the third day of the DC conference on Thursday.

Water Resource Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud was also present in the discussion.

The shipping minister later told journalists, “With DCs we discussed how to make our rivers free from encroachment, pollution and political interference. I told them not to lease out land without ministry’s permission.”

The two ministers also told the DCs to stay away from ‘all kinds of political influence’.

Despite many court directives on keeping the riverine land around Dhaka pollution and encroachment free, encroachers continue to illegally grab these lands for building apartments, office complexes and factories.

In most cases, local politicians and influential people are involved.

“Ministry will do everything possible to recover the land and to make them pollution free,” Shajahan Khan added.

He also said that in this year‘s Eid his ministry would take more measures to ensure the security of home-bound people.