Sattala slum razed without rehabilitating dwellers
Staff Correspondent
A demolition squad of the directorate general of health services razed the Sattala slum at Mahakhali to the ground on Thursday ignoring the outcry of the poor, living there for more than three decades.
Health Service sources said, the shanties were dismantled to make room for the government to build a physiotherapy college on the five-acre and 28 decimal plot.
They said that the government had allocated Tk 50 crore for building the college.
A detachment of about 300 police joined a health service team, led by a senior assistant secretary of the health ministry Shafiquzzaman and an executive magistrate, to demolish the slum.
Hundreds of slum dwellers blocked the slum entrance, chanting slogans opposing the wholesale eviction without rehabilitation, in a vain effort to foil their eviction, as the demolition squad reached the spot.
Ignoring the slum dwellers’ protests, the demolition squad dismantled over 500 shanties until the evening rendering thousands without a shelter.
The slum dwellers, seen leaving the spot with whatever they had, said that they had nowhere to look for new shelters.
The health service director general Munir Hussain declined to comment on the question, why the authorities were evicting the slum dwellers without rehabilitating them.
A health ministry official accompanying the demolition squad, said, the authorities had issued several notices asking the slum dwellers to leave as the government had taken the project for the construction of the Physiotherapy College.
Physiotherapy students, supported by physiotherapists, have been agitating for weeks demanding immediate construction of the government physiotherapy college.
Source : http://www.newagebd.com/2010/aug/06/front.html#6
A demolition squad of the directorate general of health services razed the Sattala slum at Mahakhali to the ground on Thursday ignoring the outcry of the poor, living there for more than three decades.
Health Service sources said, the shanties were dismantled to make room for the government to build a physiotherapy college on the five-acre and 28 decimal plot.
They said that the government had allocated Tk 50 crore for building the college.
A detachment of about 300 police joined a health service team, led by a senior assistant secretary of the health ministry Shafiquzzaman and an executive magistrate, to demolish the slum.
Hundreds of slum dwellers blocked the slum entrance, chanting slogans opposing the wholesale eviction without rehabilitation, in a vain effort to foil their eviction, as the demolition squad reached the spot.
Ignoring the slum dwellers’ protests, the demolition squad dismantled over 500 shanties until the evening rendering thousands without a shelter.
The slum dwellers, seen leaving the spot with whatever they had, said that they had nowhere to look for new shelters.
The health service director general Munir Hussain declined to comment on the question, why the authorities were evicting the slum dwellers without rehabilitating them.
A health ministry official accompanying the demolition squad, said, the authorities had issued several notices asking the slum dwellers to leave as the government had taken the project for the construction of the Physiotherapy College.
Physiotherapy students, supported by physiotherapists, have been agitating for weeks demanding immediate construction of the government physiotherapy college.
Source : http://www.newagebd.com/2010/aug/06/front.html#6
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