Editorial
Lake turning into rubbish dumpyard?
They are easy to catch
ILLEGAL filling of lakes and water bodies in the city continues unabated. Encroachers on Gulshan Lake are now using a different tactic. They are filling up the lake by dumping rubbish during the night, often at dead of night. This curse is going out of all proportions posing disastrous consequences for city dwellers, not just for now but for years to come. From the reports published in the media based on interviews with some plot owners around the lake it appears that there is a nexus between some owners and the rubbish dumpers, the former's interest being to extend their landholding and the latter's to grab some land. Apparently, a particular surveyor of Rajuk is actively involved in helping the grabbers. No less than an executive engineer of Rajuk has said that he has no knowledge about filling of the lake. It is indeed disgusting to note that every time any Rajuk official is confronted with a situation like this he would say, "the matter will be looked into". But years pass by and nothing happens. To say the least, this is unacceptable. We are yet to hear of any punitive action being taken against a single defaulting official of Rajuk. Grabbing of Gulshan Lake is not only polluting the environment of the locality but also causing illegal occupation of prime government land. At the same time, it is clogging one of the major sources of drainage of rain and wastewaters. This is an opportunity for the present administration particularly towards the fag end of its tenure to resist boldly and put a stop to such land grabbing and create a legacy of which it can rightly be proud. It is our strong belief that given the will and the honesty of purpose the job can be accomplished, especially when the offenders of the wetland law are easily identifiable for the physical evidence of their act.
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