People from all walks of life on Saturday held a protest rally protesting at the Rajshahi Water Supply and Sewerage Authority鈥檚 move to install pipelines on private properties without acquisition.
Several hundred of them under the banner of Godagari Nagarik Sartha Rakkha Committee held the protest rally at Daingpara Swadhin Chhattar of Godagari upazila in Rajshahi at 11:00am on Saturday.
Addressing the rally, the speakers said that Rajshahi WASA along with Hunan Construction Engineering Group Company Limited of China is jointly installing a Surface Water Treatment Plant in the Sarengpur area at Godagari upazila to supply safe drinking water to Rajshahi city dwellers.
As part of the project worth Tk 4,062 crore, 53 kilometres main pipelines and 48 kilometres primary and secondary pipelines will be installed to supply water from the Padma River to households for drinking purposes after necessary treatment.
The speakers alleged that the WASA authorities had already buried poles marking the places where this pipeline would pass.
鈥楾he authorities have dug poles on my land without letting me know anything. I have a house on that piece of land. Half of the house needs to be demolished if WASA wants to install pipelines over that piece of land,鈥� said Md Alam, a former councillor of the Godagari municipality.
Godagari Nagarik Sartha Rakkha Committee president Salahuddin Biswas said that the WASA authorities were also evicting people who had long been living on roadside land of the Road and Highway Department without relocating or compensating them.
He alleged that Rajshahi WASA was trying to forcibly occupy the land by managing a 鈥榲ested group鈥� without giving proper compensation to those who would be affected.
Jamaat leader Md Obaidullah said that they were not against any development work. 鈥榃e want to say that the basic rights of a human being are food and shelter. If one is evicted either from government land or private property without proper compensation or rehabilitation, people will no longer have these two basic rights. It is the state鈥檚 responsibility to ensure their fundamental rights. All development work should be done keeping people alive,鈥� he said.
The speakers threatened to wage a stronger movement if their demands were not met.
Contacted, Rajshahi WASA managing director Md Zakir Hossain said that they had already acquired 51 acres of land for installing the pipelines.
鈥榃e have nothing to do for those who are living on road and highway department land. The latter has handed over their roadside land to us for installing the pipelines,鈥� he added.