There is also Didar's project adjacent to Tamanna Family World amusement park.

The government should recover and excavate the encroached land and turn those into parts of the rivers again, they added.

The government embarked on the drive following a vigorous campaign launched by The Daily Star against pollution and encroachment on the rivers surrounding the capital.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and heads of the parliamentary standing committees on the Ministries of Land, Water Resources and Environment said they have already taken initiatives to evict land grabbers on the rivers and find ways to check dumping industrial wastes into the rivers around the capital.

Dhaka's lifeline Buriganga River has almost died of pollution and encroachment during the last 20 years, he said, adding that it is an unbearable experience to see the rivers dying.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) or the district administration could not take legal action against the encroachers following the status quo.

Apart from toxic industrial effluents, solid and liquid wastes discharged by the Dhaka City Corporation and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) have been polluting the rivers around the capital, Mostafizur said.

However, recent visits to the embankment revealed that filling up of the river continues on both sides of the BIWTA office.

Moreover, the cadre officials have also influenced an unplanned bridge, now under construction, over the Turag just to connect their housing project to the Tongi-Ashulia bypass.

Everything is clearly visible on the other bank as the once mighty Turag, popularly knows as Kohor Daria [big river], has been reduced to hardly 50 feet in width here.

A lush green lawn and a well-planned pond increase the beauty of the building, which in fact choked the river here.

The sand and soil carrying cargo boats, locally known as 'bolget', are the main transports operating on these river routes.

Hazrat Mukhter was born and brought up in Kamarpara village by the now-reduced Turag. He has many memories about the river.

Amid encroachment by housing estates, private universities and refuelling stations, the tiny Turag, the major flood flow system of the capital from north to south, is being choked and reduced every day.

The grabber has raised the plinth about 10 feet above the water level which easily draws attention.

Lend your hands and together we can win a war against these powerful, rich and ruthless river-gobblers.

Although the AL pledged before the national elections to bring "changes in political culture and prevailing ill practices", no change is apparent in the culture of river grabbing.