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Land grabbers trap poor people at Jungle Salimpur

Saleh Noman
24 Sep 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 24 Sep 2022 03:40:00
Land grabbers trap poor people at Jungle Salimpur
They live in the haradous area without proper civic amenities– Kamol Das

Sharmin Begum (35) from the third gender was standing at the intersection of Fauzdar-Hat Bayezid Link Road and Jungle Salimpur, the country’s largest hill settlement, venting her anger on the local representatives.

She said she paid TK70, 000 for a piece of land to live in the settlement. But now the government has issued a notice to the settlement residents to move out.

Showing a picture of a document written on a stamp on her smart phone screen Sharmin said they committed that they would allow us to live here permanently.

They said they were trying to take out a lease on this land from the government. Like her at least around one hundred third-sex citizens with hundreds of thousands of other marginalized people are living here, she said.

Sharmin was speaking to this reporter next to a makeshift police check post where every vehicle and person was checked at the entry to the jungle Salimpur, the hilly settlement of ‍around 100,000 people under Shitakunda Upazila of the Port City of Chattogram.

Locals and government officials said since 1991 some land grabbers brought low-income people from different areas of Chattogram and built settlements there after clearing forests ‍and destroying hills.

Gradually, these urban hilly areas turned into a large settlement of uprooted people including climate refugees who lost their land due to the river erosion.

They are living there without proper civic amenities and it is a hazardous area to live in where dozens of people have died in recent years due to landslides. Several government agencies took up many projects to construct roads, bridges and school buildings.

Although there are thousands of people living here, only 300 -350 people have occupied more than 3,000 acres of hilly land in the entire area. They sell and rent land to poor people, said Mominur Rahman, Chattogram Deputy Commissioner.

Most of the people live on cheap rents and many are involved in criminal activities, he said.

Now, efforts are being taken to recover this land to preserve the hills and the biodiversity, he said.

Administration sources said the residents of the areas were given an ultimatum several times to move out of the areas but they haven’t done so.

Residents think they are trapped

Currently, Jungle Salimpur and its adjacent Alinagar slums are under strict vigilance. Check posts have been set up at the only entrance to the slums to prevent criminals from entering.

On Wednesday afternoon, while visiting the area, this reporter saw only local administration-approved auto rickshaws were allowed to carry passengers to the slum and drivers was given pass cards.

Now 76 auto-rickshaws are allowed in the area, said Golam Gafur, General Secretary of Jungle Salimpur Bastibashi Chhinnamul Samannay Sangram Parishad.

He denied the allegation that the area was a spot of drug and arms trade and a safe haven for criminals. He said they were very poor and marginalized people and they mainly worked in the nearby Bayzid and Nasirabad Industrial areas. Almost all the houses of the settlements are built on the slopes of the hill mostly made of tin and wood with a few concrete buildings.

Some houses have electricity connections and influential locals have installed deep tube wells from where they supply water to the residents in return for money.

Ayesha Akhter (40), a resident who settled in the hilly area from the erosion-prone Sandwip Island said, “We have been living here for a few years, building a shelter with the surplus of the meager salary of my husband.”

Inside the slum, several government shelter project houses were seen as part of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s special gift to the homeless people under the government project to ensure homes for everyone.

A total of 4 41 570 landless and homeless families have been rehabilitated there from 1997 to June 2021.

“Here in the settlement everything is controlled by gangs and they sell land to people like me but they are not the owners,” Sharmin Begum from the third gender said.

Now they are not taking responsibility when the government is attempting to remove marginalized people from the areas, she alleged.

Evacuation and resettlement

This area of Jungle Salimpur is the only government-owned large area adjacent to Chattogram Metropolitan areas where some iconic projects have been planned by the government for the future.

A high-level meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office last week after several government processes to evict the residents of Salimpur and adjoining Alinagar slums had failed.

The meeting decided that real landless people would be resettled in their respective areas after verification.

Deputy Commissioner Mominur Rahman said the government would soon take measures for the real homeless people here. However, before that, they will be removed from the settlement.

Before this initiative of eviction a writ petition was filed with the High Court by the residents. The court directed the government to arrange resettlement for the residents before the eviction.

According to High Court and Supreme Court orders, the government has been instructed to take measures for resettlement, said Advocate Md Abdul Kader Bhuiyan, the lawyer of the writ petitioner Gazi Sadek.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2021 the estimated number of homeless in the country was 8.5 million.

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