NRCC’s decision not to publish 37,000 new encroachers’ names as tantamount to siding with grabbers

The National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) has decided not to publish a list of 37,000 new encroachers of 48 rivers and the environment activists say protecting their identities is tantamount to siding with the grabbers.
The commission’s meeting minutes say those who made the list did not follow the British-era Cadastral Survey (CS), which as per a High Court order, should be followed while demarcating rivers. That’s why making public the names of encroachers and the number of structures may cause legal and administrative complications, added the minutes. The list was made under a Tk 34 crore project to come up with a study that would also include descriptions of biodiversity, erosion and river health. The Project to Survey 48 Rivers was taken up in 2017 and it ended in December 2022.
Environmentalists said the commission apparently took the side of the encroachers by protecting their identities, while the commission chief said that they did not even have the CS map and record of rights [khatian] that are required to prove one is an encroacher. Otherwise, the list will fall flat if it is challenged in a court of law.
Demarcation in line with the CS, RS (Revisional Survey) and BS (Bangladesh Survey), has not been done on any river of the country. That’s why it is difficult to label anyone as an encroacher in legal terms, he said, adding that the Water Act-2013 and Port Act-1908 were his only options. By binning the list, the commission is letting the influential encroachers off the hook. There are some encroachers on the list whose names we even can’t dare to utter.
The chairman could say the list is incomplete. If the CS was followed, the list of encroachers would be longer. But that does not mean this list is worthless. If there is a conflict between the CS and Water Act, the commission could have gone to a court, seeking remedy. But it chose to hide the list instead. We must say that withholding the names is a clear stand against the rules, laws and a High Court order that made NRCC the guardian of rivers. The commission should be tearing down the illegal structures instead of protecting the encroachers.