Illegal shanties on hill slopes evicted in Ctg

Authorities today levelled illegal shanties on hill slopes in Chittagong city in advance concerns of landslide ahead of the approaching monsoon season.

Around 100 tin-shed shanties built on railway property in Railway Toton Housing area were demolished during the drive from 10:00am to 1:30pm, our local staff correspondent reports.

“People living at the base of the hills have been evicted. They might be victims of landslide during monsoon,”Sheikh Jobaer Ahmed, assistant commissioner (land) of Kattoli Circle, who led the drive, told The Daily Star.

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Horror strikes hills

“In the drive, we evicted around 100 houses including tin-sheds, thatched and Semi-pucca structures and disconnected the utility service lines,” told the AC.

60-year-old Shahida Akhter, a dweller of the colony who has been living with her handicapped husband, claimed: “I have been living here since 1986. I bought the land.Now they have demolished my house without any notice;throwing me under the sky.”

Another resident, Lavli, 60, said: “There have been no incidents of landslide here. I have been living here for the last 25 years.They (the administration) came here without any notice and destroyed our house. Now where shall we live in this Ramadan?”

In 2007, around 127 people were killed in mudslide in different parts in the city. Last year too, over 130 people were also killed in landslide all over the country.