It directs govt to submit compliance report
The High Court on Thursday ordered the government authorities to immediately evict 30 illegal structures from the banks of the Turag River in Gazipur and submit a compliance report within four months.
The bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Kazi Waliul Islam issued the directive after hearing a supplementary application filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, referring to its original 2016 writ petition seeking protection of the Turag from encroachment and pollution.
On January 30, 2019, the court declared the Turag River a 鈥榣iving entity鈥� and issued a 17-point directive for its conservation.
The HC also ordered authorities to map all rivers, canals, and water bodies using SPARRSO (Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation) satellites.
The court also ordered collection of biodiversity data and creation of a digital database for environmental monitoring, ensuring public access to maps and data at fixed fees through upazila and district administration offices, with a compliance report due in court.
The court directed authorities to update the list of illegal encroachers compiled by former National River Conservation Commission chairman Mujibur Rahman Howlader in 2019 and submit the updated list to the court within six months.
Mujibur previously reported that 63,249 grabbers had been identified across 776 rivers, with 18,579 evicted.
HRPB鈥檚 lawyer, Manzill Murshid, told 抖阴精品 that following the 2016 writ petition, the HC formed a judicial inquiry committee, which later submitted a report listing 30 private and industrial occupants of the Turag River.
In an earlier ruling, the bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal in a verdict on January 30, 2019, issued a 17-point directive, declaring the Turag a 鈥榣iving entity.鈥�
The Appellate Division later reviewed the case and provided additional instructions, but enforcement remains pending.
During the hearing, Manzill Murshid argued that illegal structures along the Turag remain untouched, leading to severe environmental degradation.
He noted that factories operating illegally on the riverbanks continued to pollute the water and destroy biodiversity, warning that inaction would cause irreversible environmental damage.
Manzill underscored the urgent need for enforcement to protect the Turag River from further destruction.
