Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) yesterday partially demolished former BNP lawmaker Salahuddin Ahmed's house beside the Buriganga river. Salahuddin encroached upon the riverbank and built part of the house and its stairs during the four-party alliance rule. The BIWTA had earlier served on him several notices for removing the illegal structure. "But he did not listen to us," said a BIWTA official. Meanwhile, around 1,500 illegal structures were demolished yesterday in the city's Shyampur and Mirpur and Purbachal project area in Rupganj of Narayanganj under the ongoing eviction drives by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and the BIWTA. The BIWTA knocked down 90 illegal structures along the Buriganga from Postogola to Kadamtali. Of those, at least 20 were concrete structures. An influential land grabber, Golam Hossain, had built some of these structures, BIWTA sources said.
BIWTA official Sharif Afzal Hossain said they will continue their drive against the land grabbers. Rajuk yesterday demolished around 1,000 illegal structures, mostly residential, in Purbachal project area . Local people encroached upon the project land though Rajuk had paid them compensation for their land acquired by it, Rajuk sources said. "We paid them compensation for the acquired land. But many of them are still living in the project area. So, we demolished those structures," said Magistrate ASM Emdadud Dastagir, who headed the Rajuk eviction team. "Now the authorities would conduct development work there."
Rajuk will conduct an eviction drive at Nikunja today, and tomorrow it will knock down the remaining illegal structures at Purbachal. The DCC yesterday demolished around 500 structures in Mirpur from Section 10 to Section 12. Anwar Pasha, magistrate of the DCC, said many of the locals having roadside houses extended those up to the roads. "So we demolished those." They also demolished a few hundred temporary structures.