Several land claimants have already started filling the lake at several places near the Shahjatpur Road, on the southern side of Morium Tower opposite Road-105. Locals say the problem began after the government took a decision to "de-acquire" the entire Batara Mouja and to disengage itself from developing the Shajatpur areas, including Gulshan, Baridhara and Banani.

The declaration prompted private owners to begin selling their land, over which the government has no authority, local people in Shajatpur said. Since Rajuk never bothered to demarcate the lake area, large real estate developers, entrepreneurs, and service holders bought up large areas and small plots.

Workers were seen filling in a small part of the lake by dumping construction rubbish in cement bags at around 12:30pm yesterday near the Shajatpur Road.

Kamal Ahmed, a local man who owns the pisciculture in the lake, said it was Rajuk that first started filling up the lake a decade ago, making residential plots and distributing them among influential people.

Kamal, who grew up in the Shajatpur area, estimates Rajuk has filled in half the lake, extracting several hundred plots at one stretch.

"Look all those houses along the lake that have come out within the last six years. Before the lake stretched two blocks away," Kamal said, pointing his finger at the western bank of the lake.

Kamal showed other large areas on the lake, these on the southern side of the Shajatpur Road, and alleged that the brother of a top Rajuk engineer owns "twelve kathas of land" there. Pointing at another part of the lake on the northern side of Shajatpur Road, he said the entirety belongs to a real estate developer.

Other locals echoed these views. "These people are just waiting to fill up the lake and claim their land. You cannot stop them if the lake is not demarcated immediately," said another resident of Shajatpur.

Shahid Alam, Rajuk Chairman, told The Daily Star that the Gulshan, Baridhara and Banani areas have no plots left for allocation. He added that, as per his records, all plots along the lake have been allocated, leaving 'no scope any more' to extract any new plots without filling up the lake.

Alam said 47 residential plots were created by filling up the lake during the tenure of the last government. The plots were all 'distributed' among influential people as well as wage earners living overseas. But a High Court bench later cancelled the allocation of those 47 plots.