Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday expressed helplessness in removing illegal religious structures on grabbed land.

Land grabbers often set up religious structures like mosques on grabbed land as a cover for grabbing, he told a discussion at the Jatiya Press Club.

The minister said fundamentalist groups would unseat him if those structures were demolished.

Green activists, however, criticised this “helplessness” of the minister.

Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) and Buriganga Riverkeeper jointly organised the discussion on “Disastrous Condition of Old Buriganga River due to Reckless Encroachment and its Future”.

Although the minister left the programme venue after delivering his speech, rights activist Sultana Kamal reacted to his comment.

“The honorable minister said they have to take steps [to protect rivers] after much contemplation. In many cases, they feel helpless,” she said.

Such “helplessness” of an influential government representative cannot be acceptable, said Sultana, also the vice president of Bapa.

Slum dwellers are evicted by “different means, including setting fire to their shanties or bulldozing those”, but nothing is done against powerful people who grab land and rivers, she added.

Referring to a Tk 1,500 crore project taken up by the government to protect the urban area along the 8 kilometre stretch of the old Buriganga, she said the government should take up projects to save the entire river from grabbing.

The river's second channel stretching from Showari Ghat to Zainul Haque Sikder Women's Medical College Hospital near Basilla is known as old Buriganga.

The High Court in 2009 had ordered the district administrations concerned to demarcate rivers around the capital and set up boundary pillars on the river banks. But no such step was taken for the old Buriganga channel, said Sharif Jamil, founder of Buriganga Riverkeeper and joint secretary of Bapa.

He presented some pictures and satellite images showing the land grabbed by different housing and private companies, bus stops, bridges and mosques along the Buriganga.

“We wait for pollution to occur and then we take up projects worth Tk 1,500 crore to fix it,” said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association.

She blasted the government for not taking steps when green activists in 2012 brought the issue of encroachment on the old Buriganga to the government's notice.

Many laws are there to save rivers and water bodies from land grabbers, but “not a single person” has been penalised so far for river pollution and encroachment, she added.

Talking to The Daily Star, Rakibul Islam Talukder, additional chief engineer of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said a survey was done by the district administrations concerned for river demarcation.

As the BIWTA raised some objections about the demarcation, the Directorate of Land Records and Survey was tasked with conducting a fresh survey on the demarcation of the second channel of the Buriganga, he added.

The fresh survey was launched about one and a half months ago.