The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has started an evacuation operation to rescue the hundred-year-old DIT Pond in Gandaria area of Old Dhaka.
Law enforcement personnel were deployed there for the operation. This operation started on Thursday (June 8) noon.
Local residents and environmentalists have been observing various programmes to protect the pond.
Before the start of the operation, miking was done to remove the goods of the shops that had occupied the pond.
However, a section of the local residents formed a human chain around the DIT pond demanding saving the pond. At the same time, the councilor’s supporters also gave a programme. However, the programmes of both sides were thwarted by the police. Last Friday, the shopkeepers did not move at first but later started running to move the goods.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Nature Conservation Alliance (BNCA) had threatened to go to court seeking legal action if the authorities concerned do not take action to stop encroachment of the DIT Pond.
In a statement, BNCA’s member secretary Muhammad Anowarul Hoque had also criticised the police for denying permission to hold a human chain in support of saving the pond.
The convenor of the alliance Prof Dr Ahmed Kamruzzaman Majumder was harassed by the encroachers as the leaders of environmental organisations went there to join a human chain on Friday organised by the locals to demand government action to protect the pond from encroachment.
