Villagers in Dumuria, Khulna, say two encroached canals are being dropped from a list of canals due for excavation. Hundreds of people from Gutudia union formed a human chain on Saturday in protest. If the canals are not dug, they say, the farmland around them will be waterlogged for years and water will pool around hundreds of homesteads.

In July the Department of Disaster Management asked for a list of five Dumuria canals to excavate. The list drawn up in the first week of September by the project implementation officer (PIO) named the Maduar canal and the Krishnanagar-Nimtola canal in Rangpur union, the Doldanga canal in Sahas union, and the Talimul and Khude canals at Mostor More in Gutudia.

Villagers allege that land dealers filled in the two Gutudia canals, built a road and hold the land as plots. Gutudia union parishad chairman Sheikh Tuhinul Islam Tuhin said two government canals had been filled for roads and buildings without the upazila administration acting, and demanded the land be recovered and the canals dug.

Assistant commissioner (land) Amit Kumar Biswas said two plots of canal land had been mutated into private ownership by mistake; the mutation was later cancelled under section 150 and the land returned to the government record, and it will be recovered soon, he said.

PIO Md Arif Hossain said a team of the UNO and the assistant commissioner (land) had found both canals occupied, with permanent structures and a road, and so had dropped them for now. The final list has not been sent and no money has been allocated. Samakal said UNO Sabita Sarkar did not answer repeated calls.

Source: Samakal