Take real action against river grabbers

Addressing a discussion, the National River Commission (NRC) Chairman said that a list of river grabbers is being prepared to bring them to justice. For years now, we have been hearing either this exact same story or some other, but are yet to see any substantive action taken against large scale encroachers. We wonder when the listing of river grabbers will finally end and when exactly it is that any meaningful action be taken against them.

During the time of our Liberation War, Bangladesh's river route was about 24,000 km long. Today, it has astonishingly been reduced by 18,000 km to only 6,000 km. In his address, the NRC Chairman also said that they "will never allow anyone to reduce the length anymore". But what exactly were the authorities doing up until now? Why wait this long to 'decide' not to allow anyone to reduce the length anymore?

Allegations of river grabbing against influential and powerful people have always been there. Newspapers have time and again reported on who is responsible for encroaching on rivers and how. Disappointingly, the authorities have, more often than not, been unwilling to do anything about it. Meanwhile, countless numbers of people whose livelihoods depend on our rivers have been negatively affected.

It is the government's prime duty to save our rivers by taking legal actions against the grabbers. We hope that the authorities, instead of wasting more time, will take meaningful action against grabbers, regardless of their political or other affiliations.