Plea seeks HC order to remove 30 illegal structures from Turag

A petition was filed with the High Court yesterday seeking its directive upon the government to remove 30 structures constructed illegally on foreshore of the river Turag at different places in Gazipur.

Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed the petition with the HC, saying that a judicial probe has found that 30 organisations individually constructed the structures on the bank of the Turag although the HC had earlier directed to remove all the structures from the lands of four rivers -- Buriganga, Turag, Shitalakkhya and Dhaleshwari -- around Dhaka city. The bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah fixed October 29 for hearing the petition, HRPB's lawyer Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star.

The probe report was submitted by the Gazipur chief judicial magistrate to the HC recently. The report contained names of 30 organisations and individuals who built the structures. Following the HRPB petition, the HC on January 5 had directed the chief judicial magistrate to probe if illegal structures were built there and submit a report.

The rights organisation had filed the writ petition with the HC on November 7 last year, a day after The Daily Star ran a report headlined “Time to declare Turag dead”.