Jewel Chowdhury, Habiganj/

Hundreds of illegal structures and cattle markets have been evicted in Shaistaganj on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway. On Monday, from morning to noon, under the leadership of the Executive Magistrate Shah Zahurul Hossain, these buildings were demolished with the help of excavators.

Shaistaganj Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Nahid Bhuya, Deputy Divisional Engineer of Habiganj Roads and Public Ways Department (SOAZ) Rayhan Akbar along with the policemen assisted the operation.

Executive Magistrate Shah Zahurul Hossain said that hundreds of illegal structures have been built on both sides of Shaistaganj Thana area of Dhaka-Sylhet highway. The operation was carried out as part of the four-lane upgrading of the highway and the illegal structures were demolished. Among them there are commercial establishments with half-baked houses.

It is known that for a long time an influential leader has been abusing his power by occupying the land of Roads and Roads Department next to the old Shaistaganj police station and setting up a cow market and more than half a hundred vegetable shops and grabbing huge sums of money. Millions of rupees worth of vegetables are sold in these vegetable shops every morning. And from here vegetables are supplied to various places including the district.

The vegetable traders said that they gave salami starting from 1 lakh to 50 thousand taka in each shop. And they are paying rent starting from 2 thousand to 3 thousand taka per month. Apart from this, the electricity bill is paid by Tk 500 per month. But most of it has no meter.

Locals said that these shops and cattle markets have illegal electricity connections. Its commission is being taken by some unscrupulous employees of rural electricity. For several years, the Roads and Highways Department could not evict due to influential persons despite writing letters at various levels. Finally last Sunday with the help of Roads and Public Paths Department administration, the date of evacuation was fixed. Meanwhile, when news about this was published in the newspaper, the matter came to the attention of the administration. Evicted as a result.

Shah Zahurul Hossain said that during the operation, about 1 acre of 56 century land was evicted from the grip of illegal occupiers. He said such operations will continue.