Cushion against grievances

To address the grievances of people affected by land acquisition for the Padma bridge, the government has taken up a plan to train them for new jobs and enable them to find alternative ways of livelihood.

Many were out of work after their land was taken for building the country's largest bridge.

Officials involved in the project said such a plan was unprecedented.

Considering the future of the rehabilitated people, local and international consultants and experts would be engaged to assess the need for training the people so that they were prepared for new jobs after the completion of the bridge and no one remained unemployed.

“It's part of the project. We will do this to make sure that there is no grievance among locals who have sacrificed their land. We know we won't be able to eradicate their pain, but we will try our best to mitigate their sorrow,” said Shafiqul Islam, project director of the Padma Bridge project.

“We will hire experts to give them [locals] training. For example, if a person needs to be given welding training, he or she would be given that, and if another wants to be a technician, he will be given that training too,” he said.

Shafiqul said 97 percent of acquisition had so far been completed while 70 percent of the displaced people had been rehabilitated in four rehabilitation sites on both sides of the river.

Around 3,000 people on both sides of the river have been displaced by the land acquisition, officials said.

According to locals and the project officials, the residents along the Padma river banks and the adjoining areas have been receiving development benefits since the Padma Bridge construction began. The construction of the bridge has helped people make money through various business activities.

The price of land in a certain area of the bridge location has shot up many folds. House rent in the area has increased, paving the way for locals to earn a bit more. A large number of people from different areas of the country are converging to the Padma Bridge site in search of work.

People are building houses to rent them to the employees-workers of the bridge. Real-estate developers have put up signboards of housing plots and apartments on the way to Mawa.

People are also buying land on both sides of the river in a bid to start new businesses once the 6.15km-long bridge, connecting Mawa of Munshiganj and Janjira of Shariatpur, is built.

The Padma Bridge will bring benefit to millions of people especially of the southern region, boost the country's economy and speed up communication.

Many evicted have switched to new jobs. However, those who solely depended on farming are still jobless.

“I was not sure what to do after our land was acquired by the government. I bought a rickshaw, as a lot of people are coming in to see the construction of the bridge every day,” said Mohammad Shahjahan.

The entrance to Kumarbhog Rehabilitation Site in Mawa, the new address for those who had to give away their homes for the construction of the Padma bridge. Many of them, like the ones in the bellow photo, have been put out of work in the process and are now in urgent need of employment. Photo: Amran Hossain

Like Shahjahan, many youths have switched to new jobs, like repairing mobile phones.

Once the bridge is in operation in 2018, it will also end employment of hundreds more people now engaged in various types of income generating activities on both sides of the Padma river.

“We had 23 decimal of land where we used to cultivate rice and potatoes. But now we only have a house as the government has given us five decimal of land at the rehabilitation site where I along with my four-member family live. I have been spending the money that I got from the government,” said Hasan Hawlader, 75.

“I am searching for new jobs as I am worried about my family. The money the government gave will be finished soon,” he said.

Like Hasan, hundreds of people are worried about their families.

Besides, they alleged that the authorities did not hire them for work at the construction site; rather the Chinese companies working on this project hired workers from different parts of the country.

Contacted, economist Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed and sociologist Prof Sadeka Halim at Dhaka University told The Daily Star that the authorities should arrange alternative jobs for the displaced people.

Otherwise, the poor would be even poorer there, they said.