Pinaki Roy

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) or the district administration could not take legal action against the encroachers following the status quo.

However, recent visits to the embankment revealed that filling up of the river continues on both sides of the BIWTA office.

Moreover, the cadre officials have also influenced an unplanned bridge, now under construction, over the Turag just to connect their housing project to the Tongi-Ashulia bypass.

Everything is clearly visible on the other bank as the once mighty Turag, popularly knows as Kohor Daria [big river], has been reduced to hardly 50 feet in width here.

A lush green lawn and a well-planned pond increase the beauty of the building, which in fact choked the river here.

The sand and soil carrying cargo boats, locally known as 'bolget', are the main transports operating on these river routes.

Hazrat Mukhter was born and brought up in Kamarpara village by the now-reduced Turag. He has many memories about the river.

Amid encroachment by housing estates, private universities and refuelling stations, the tiny Turag, the major flood flow system of the capital from north to south, is being choked and reduced every day.

The grabber has raised the plinth about 10 feet above the water level which easily draws attention.

Although the AL pledged before the national elections to bring "changes in political culture and prevailing ill practices", no change is apparent in the culture of river grabbing.

Sidr was considered as fierce a cyclone as the ones that hit the country in 1970 and 1991 killing 5 lakh and 1.4 lakh people respectively