The latest study carried out by Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) reveals that some one lakh out of 14 lakh disadvantaged people, mostly factory workers, day labourers, or self-employed in different informal sectors, are living in some 1,814 slums in the port city.

Of them, over 50 thousand live in the slums situated at the risky and treacherous slopes or bottom of hills where they can rent rooms at cheaper rates but safety of lives is hardly taken into consideration there.

Following the study report, the CDA has taken an initiative for rehabilitating the disadvantaged people, sources said.

The series of landslides that buried alive over one hundred people in Chittagong on June 11 prompted the CDA to start identifying areas to rehabilitate the disadvantaged people to avert human disasters brought about by landslides.

It is also planning to build up physical barriers around the hills through development of walkways and tree plantation to check growth of slums in the foothill areas.

According to the study report, around 92 per cent of the disadvantaged people living in the study area of Lalkhan Bazar, Matijharna and Bakalia Bagarbill came from different parts of the country in search of work or self-employment opportunities.

The slums providing them with shelter comprise thatched (72%) and semi-pucca (28%) houses, which are vulnerable to natural calamities.

Unscrupulous and influential locals and vested quarters set up these slums illegally to rent them to the low-income people while in many cases floating and poor people make thatched houses at the foot of the hills for cheap shelter.

Setting up of such slums seriously affects natural vegetation, triggering landslides, especially in the rainy season and people living in slums on 'Khas' or government land in and around hills are most vulnerable to death in landslides.

Large slums at Jamtali, Lalkhan Bazar, Matijharna, South Pahartali and an area to the west of Foy's Lake are on the lands of Bangladesh Railway, forest department and public works department.

Rehabilitation of the disadvantaged people has become a must to check the mushrooming growth of slums and death in landslides, urban experts said.

"Putting a stop to hill cutting would not be sufficient to stop death in landslides unless those living in the slums of hilly areas could be rehabilitated," CDA Chairman Shah Mohammad Akhter Uddin said.

"We have started the process of preparing a Detailed Area Plan identifying areas for rehabilitating the poor on some 35 acres of land at three separate spots of the city under a project -- housing for disadvantaged group of people," the CDA chairman told this correspondent on Wednesday.

"The plan to be prepared by December might identify land for rehabilitation in the areas adjacent to Kalpaloke Phase II, Ananya -- a housing project under implementation at Jalalabad, and the other end of Shah Amanat bridge," he said.

He sought cooperation and participation of all the authorities concerned as well as NGOs and individuals to make the initiative a success.

The CDA has also plans to develop the northern fringe of the city spreading over 2000-acres of hilly land to the north of Zakir Hossain Road through creation of water reservoirs with necessary silt-traps at the bottom of different hills, said the CDA chairman.

It will help check erosion that fills the city drains with earth and silt, causing frequent inundation, he said.

Asked about steps to check the rampant hill cutting and consequent landslides causing casualty in the hill slums, he said the CDA won 18 cases where imprisonment and financial punishment were awarded to people accused of hill cutting.

It filed 25 cases accusing many big fishes for hill cutting since January 31 this year, he said.

The accused in the cases also include influential persons like detained Chittagong City Corporation Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Director of Abul Khaer Group SK Sengupta, and proprietors of many real estate developers engaged in levelling hills at different locations under Bayezid, Khulshi, Panchlaish and Pahartali areas in the city, CDA sources said.

"All the concerned authorities like the railway, forest department, public works department having hilly lands under encroachment should come forward to check the evil practice," the CDA chairman said.

Besides, the police are also empowered to arrest any person or confiscate equipment and properties for hill cutting at any time and any place under the Building Construction rules and Environment Protection Act, he added.