The High Court yesterday directed the Rajuk chairman to demarcate the Gulshan Lake area in the capital within 20 days and to submit a report in this regard before it by June 5.

During the hearing on a rule, the court asked the government authorities concerned to maintain status quo on the demolition of structures in the lake area.

It also ordered the authorities not to evict any slum dweller from the lake area and also not to allow anybody encroach on the lake till June 5.

The court passed the order after Iqbal Kabir Lytton, a counsel for Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), an environmentalist organisation, told the court that it is not slum dwellers but others who had been allocated portions of the lake that have encroached on it.

Lytton said this before the HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim, as he visited the lake area on May 11 as per the court's earlier order.

The bench also asked him to submit a list of the names of the persons who had been allotted portions of the lake, to it by June 5.

Earlier on January 25, April 15 and May 2, the HC had directed the authorities to remove or demolish all illegal structures on the Gulshan Lake to free it from encroachment.

Rajuk Chairman Nurul Huda yesterday appeared before the HC bench as per its May 2 order in connection with the rule.

After a report was published in the daily Prothom Alo, the court on January 25, issued a suo moto rule upon the authorities concerned to explain why they should not be directed to protect the lake.

According to the daily, a dam of over five bighas of land was created across Gulshan Lake, dividing it in the middle. Several tin-shed houses have also been erected along the dam by claiming ownership of the land.

Deputy Attorney General ABM Altaf Hossain and Assistant Attorney General Yeadia Zaman represented the government.