Bangladesh
River Occupants 63,000 river occupants in 64 districts
Dhaka, January 13: Mujibur Rahman Hawlader, the outgoing chairman of the National River Protection Commission, has estimated that the number of river occupants in 64 districts of the country is about 63,000. He said this in response to a question from a journalist during the presentation of the commission's annual report-2019 on Tuesday.
If the number of river occupants is mentioned as 57,000 in the 2019 report, when journalists want to know about the current situation, Mujibur Hawlader said, it will be around 63,000.
According to the report, most of the river occupants are in Khulna division. The number there is 11,245 people. And 4,890 illegal occupants have been evicted.
The lowest number of river occupants is 2,044 in Sylhet division. In this department, 576 illegal establishments have been evicted in 2019.
The number of river occupants in Dhaka division is 8,890; 5,935 establishments of 1,452 people in the river land were evicted.
The report mentions a total of 11 rivers and 201 canals in Dhaka district including Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakshya, Ichhamati, Balu, Banshi, Gazikhali, Kaliganga.
The number of river occupants in Dhaka district is 6,758; 5,799 people have been evicted. Narayanganj has nine rivers and 218 canals. There are 785 occupants of rivers and canals. There are 16 rivers and 117 canals in Manikganj district; The number of occupants is 1,399.
Faridpur district has 13 rivers and 15 canals; The number of occupants is 1,834. The number of river occupants in Tangail district is 1,788.
According to the report, a total of 57,390 river occupants in 64 districts were evicted from 18,579 settlements.
The report said that the district administration could not carry out the expected eviction campaign as planned due to lack of adequate funding and capacity.
Evacuation operations were also hampered last year due to the coronavirus epidemic.
Chairman of the River Protection Commission Mojibur Hawlader said, "I have tried to give a full report." However, many reports were not delivered on time and could not give a full report.
