The Buriganga along with other rivers in Dhaka is dying out due to continued encroachments, and acute pollution caused by dumping of industrial waste. As per the suggestions and the demands made by environmentalists and green activists, the past governments had taken initiatives from time to time in a bid to save the rivers from encroachers and polluters but in vain. In 2003, the then government formed a task force to save the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Sitalakhya and took some decisions, including eviction of the encroachers. The eviction drive had also been conducted from time to time but a good number of establishments along the riversides are still occupied by encroachers (most of them by influential people). Industries are also continuing to release its waste into the rivers. The shores and off-shores and often the channel along the River Buriganga from Shoilmachi to Fatullah had been registered in the names of individuals. At places, the so-called owners have been paying land taxes (Khajna) for years and making things more complicated for those who want to free the River Buriganga from encroachers. Land had been sold and resold to innocent middle-class people of the city. Professor Muzaffer Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan, at a recent programme said,