Illegal grabbers free up footpaths in Nimtoli fearing eviction

Following the announcement of an eviction drive by the city corporation, on Sunday night the squatters themselves demolished Illegal structures built along the footpath in the capital's Nimtoli intersection.

Earlier on Sunday afternoon, the city corporation, using microphones, announced an eviction drive in the area to begin on Monday morning, and marked the illegal structures that would be demolished.

To start their drive to free footpaths from encroachment, Dhaka South City Corporation Property Officer Md Muniruzzaman, Region-1 Executive Engineer Mithun Chandra Shil, the police, the city corporation surveyor and workers, went to Nimtoli on Monday morning as announced earlier.

But they were astonished to find most of the illegal structures there had already been demolished, with a lot of debris lying along the footpaths.

Regarding the matter, Dhaka South City Corporation's Chief Property Officer Russel Sabrin said, "We marked 15 shops illegally built at the Nimtoli intersection for demolition to free up the footpaths from squatters. But surprisingly, we found the grabbers had on their own demolished those structures and freed up the footpaths."

With the prompt evacuation of the illegal squatters, the 120-foot long footpath at the Nimtoli intersection is now visible and is now 10-30 feet in width, he added.