CPA land recovered after 27 years
Staff Correspondent, Chittagong
A mobile court here yesterday bulldozed a two-storey building, a sawmill and a few other structures to recover about 10 katha land of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) that was encroached 27 years ago by an influential quarter. Sources said CPA Magistrate Munir Chowdhury led the four-hour drive from 8:30am at Avoymitra Ghat area in Feeringi Bazar under Kotwali along the north bank of Karnaphuli river and demolished the structures built on the land worth over Tk 1 crore. They said Badiur Rahman Sawdagar, a businessman, took lease of the property from the CPA back in 1966 but the CPA authority had it cancelled in 1979 for constructing unauthorised structures and encroaching additional land. Later on, Badiur left the country by handing the land over to another businessman Mohammad Ishaq Sawdagar, who built more illegal structures there. Sources said the CPA failed to recover the land in the last 27 years since 1979 due to legal tangles owing to seven cases filed by the encroachers. Eventually, the cases were disposed off recently in favour of the CPA. Following the disposal of cases, the CPA magistrate served a notice to Ishaq Sawdagar on September 21 asking him to vacate the land in 24 hours. A 50-member team from Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) and another 50 eviction staffs of the port assisted the magistrate in the drive. After the recovery, a team of 10 ansars were deployed on the land.
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