Government Canal Filled In for a Drain in Jhenaidah's Kaliganj, Locals Fear Waterlogging

Allegations have been raised that an old government canal is being filled in to build a drain at Nishchintapur in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenaidah. Although government papers record the place as a government canal, Kaliganj Municipality has decided to construct a drain there.

Local residents fear that filling in the canal to build the drain will reduce the flow of water in the rainy season and create waterlogging in the town.

According to the information available, in the 2025-26 fiscal year Kaliganj Municipality invited tenders under the COVID-19 project to build a drain 165 metres long and 8 feet wide over the government canal. The drain's construction cost has been estimated at around Tk 1 crore.

The contractor for the work is Nazrul Islam, owner of Bangladesh Trading and Corporation. Locally, the work is being supervised by Mahabubur Rahman Milon, member secretary of the upazila Jubo Dal.

On the other hand, on March 1, 2026, a letter was sent on Kaliganj Municipality's letterhead to the deputy director of the Jhenaidah Local Government Division seeking excavation of the same canal. It was signed by Kaliganj Municipality administrator Rezwana Nahid.

Visiting Nishchintapur at midday on Wednesday (November 4), workers were seen working inside the government canal, where casting work for the drain's construction was under way.

Sources at the municipal land office said that plots 2552 and 2601 of khatian No. 1 of Nishchintapur mouza are recorded as a government canal, and the drain is being built on the canal in plot 2601. The official map of Nishchintapur mouza also marks the spot as a canal, with 32.5 decimals of land recorded in the canal's name.

The canal was 15 to 20 feet wide in many places. An 8-foot-wide drain is now being built there.

Local residents say the current prime minister has taken up various programmes for canal excavation, yet in Kaliganj a canal is being filled in to build a drain. Rainwater from several villages flows through this canal into the Chitra River; they allege the drain will increase waterlogging, will be of no use when water pressure rises in the canal during the monsoon, and that the government's project money will go to waste.

Former Kaliganj Municipality commissioner Mukter Hossain said the canal contributes greatly to relieving waterlogging in Kaliganj town. Besides several villages of the municipality, water from about 27 villages of Shimla-Rokonpur and Trilochonpur unions in the west of the upazila passes through the town via this canal into the Chitra River. If a drain is built in this canal, people of several villages will suffer waterlogging, he said.

A BNP leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that since the BNP government came to power, the current prime minister has been travelling across the country to excavate canals, but Kaliganj is an exception, where the municipality's indifference has led to a canal being filled in for a drain.

Nazrul Islam, owner of the contracting firm Bangladesh Trading and Corporation, said by phone that district Jubo Dal general secretary Ashraful Islam Pintu is carrying out the work under his licence. Pintu is his son-in-law. He then asked that Pintu be spoken to.

Mahabubur Rahman Milon, who is in charge of supervising the work locally, said the work is being done under the licence of district Jubo Dal general secretary Ashraful Islam Pintu's father-in-law. There had been trouble over the canal, he said, and the decision was taken after discussions with the local member of parliament and people of two villages before the work began.

Kaliganj Municipality engineer Kabir Hasan said the place where the drain is being built is public land, and the decision to build the drain was taken through discussions and a resolution with local residents.

Kaliganj Municipality's municipal nayeb Khokon Kumar Das said the place is recorded as a canal in government documents, with 32.5 decimals of land in plots 2552 and 2601 recorded as a government canal.

Administrator Rezwana Nahid said the drain is being built in response to demands from local residents. The municipality's surveyor has said the canal land has fallen within the road, she said, and the drain now being built is on public land; the member of parliament, local people and World Bank representatives all came and discussed it before the decision. When asked about the letter sent to the Local Government Division seeking excavation of the canal, she hung up the phone saying she would talk later.