Editorial
Rid Gulshan Lake of grabbers
Land ministry's intervention required
The recent encroachment of the Gulshan Lake is yet another stark instance of how the capital city's wetlands and canals are facing constant threats from land grabbers. A news item carried in a leading Bengali daily shows that a dam over five bighas has been put up across the lake without any permission from concerned authorities, dividing it in the middle. Worse still, several tin-shed houses have been erected along the dam, that too, by claiming land ownership. We express our grave concern at such malpractices in the face of the city's shrinking water bodies.
What worries us more is the fact that the encroachers are outrageously operating right under the nose of Rajuk, city authorities and the law enforcing agencies as if they are given a free hand through some collusive arrangements. It has been a long time since the Gulshan Lake was subjected to pollution and illegal land filling. If this trend continues, soon the grabbers will fill in the rest of the lake, thus killing one of the largest inland water bodies in the city.
For all we know, about 40 acres of the 100-acre lake falls outside the ambit of Rajuk's authority which is why the authorized body is in a quandary about how to monitor those undemarcated parts. There are also some unresolved disputes as to the ownership of land since dwellers of the newly built houses along the dam as well as of those built previously along the lake shore are claiming to have bought them from legal owners. In most cases, however, lands belonging to the lake were sold by influential grabbers having political clouts.
In view of the continued degradation of the lake, we urge the land ministry to intervene sooner rather than later and bring the law and order forces into picture. A joint drive would do really well to free lands from the grabbers and also save it from pollution.
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