The drive to recover the Mukteshwari river at Bhaturia in Jashore is now caught up in a court injunction. The eviction process has stalled amid the encroachers' legal fight, and local people are growing anxious. They allege that a weak stand by the state side complicated the effort. With the monsoon approaching, thousands of people around Beel Harina fear waterlogging again, and about 4,000 bighas of land risk going uncultivated.

According to local people, a syndicate gradually filled in the entire stretch of the Mukteshwari that flows between Dakshinpara and Bhaturia Purbapara in Chanchra union, Jashore Sadar upazila. The matter came to light in July 2025 when notices were put up offering plots for sale on the filled-in land. News reports caused an uproar in the area. Following a local movement demanding the river's recovery, the issue was raised at a meeting of the district river protection committee, and a four-member inquiry committee was formed, headed by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Kamlesh Majumder. Its report set out the encroachment in detail.

On the Bhaturia mouza stretch, the report said that in the CS record, 381 decimals of land under plots 1978 and 1980 were listed as "canal" in the name of Chanchra zamindar Raja Baradakanta Roy, open for public use as part of the Mukteshwari. In the later SA record the same land remained classed as "canal" in the name of his heirs. In the subsequent RS field survey, 340 decimals were recorded as "canal" and "paddy land" in the name of the Jashore collector on behalf of the government. Then, in the RS record, the 381 decimals were entered as "pond" and "paddy land" in the names of Mostafa Kamal Uddin, Mostafa Jalal Uddin and Mostafa Awal Uddin.

In other words, according to the report, this part of the Mukteshwari is government land but was recorded as private property through irregularities.

Acting on the report, the river protection committee decided at a meeting on 29 October, chaired by Deputy Commissioner Md Azaharul Islam, that the Water Development Board would quickly arrange to re-excavate the filled-in stretch, with law enforcement agencies assisting if needed.

Taking advantage of the delay in acting on that decision, the recorded landholder Mostafa Jamal Uddin went to the Jashore Sadar civil judge's court on 1 December. On 10 May the court issued a temporary injunction on evicting the encroachment on the river.

Local people allege that the government lawyer did not properly present the documents on the encroachment and the district administration's inquiry report in court, even though that report fully describes how the river was occupied and filled.

A senior district administration official also acknowledged that many documents, including the inquiry report, had not been properly placed before the court. The tehsildar concerned had nevertheless tried to present the facts, but the court still issued the temporary injunction.

Denying the allegation, the court's government pleader, Adv Mohaimen, said he had played his proper role. He said the plaintiffs obtained ownership by purchase; a case over the land was filed in 1983, the state lost, and the land passed into private ownership. A later appeal was dismissed, and the court gave weight to that verdict in issuing the temporary injunction.

Nur Islam Nuru, caretaker of the land and a former peon at the Jashore registry office, told Jagonews that the landowner, Mostafa Jalal Uddin, had filed the case, that they had acquired the land by purchase, and that the court had issued the injunction after considering the land documents.

The court order leaves thousands of farmers in the Beel Harina area in the dark once more. Last week's rain has widened the waterlogged area. If the encroachment is not removed, about 4,000 bighas in the area will stay waterlogged in the coming monsoon, and residents fear losing their crops as well as water entering their homes.

Bhaturia resident Masudur Rahman said people along Beel Harina had long campaigned for the removal of these plots. They had been hopeful when the administration's inquiry confirmed the forged land records and the encroachment, and when the eviction decision was taken, expecting the water to drain from the beel once the river was dug. "But with the legal twists, the situation is getting more complicated by the day," he said.

Tauhidur Rahman, from the same area, said the land-forgery ring was trying to buy time through the court in order to keep hold of the land, while losses for ordinary people grew and they were becoming frustrated.

Sheikh Rakibul Islam Nayan, convener of the Save Beel Harina movement, said that because of waterlogging, thousands of bighas that once gave three crops a year now give only one. "If the encroachment on the river could be removed, farmers would smile again. But now it is caught in delay," he said.

Mosharraf Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Jashore, told Jagonews that the Water Development Board was dealing with the waterlogging in parts of Beel Harina caused by the encroachment.

Palash Kumar Banerjee, executive engineer of the Jashore Water Development Board, said the inquiry had confirmed the encroachment and that river land could in no way pass into private ownership. As the case was pending in court, further steps would be taken according to the court's directions.

Confirming the report and the temporary injunction, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Kamlesh Majumder said they would soon appeal against the order at the district judge's court to evict the illegal encroachment on the Mukteshwari.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.