Editorial
Inquest into Ctg landslides
Legal and preventive actions should go hand in hand
The enquiry committee on the recent Chittagong landslides, which claimed 123 lives, has held six government organisations responsible for the disaster. It is evident now that the government organisations, which were supposed to work towards protecting the hills, have not only committed lapses of their own but have also abetted in the commission of hill cutting crimes. In other words, organisations like department of environment, Chittagong City Corporation, Chittagong Development Authority, Railways, forest department and police have been found to be negligent of their duties. The members of the civil administration, to our mind, cannot also evade responsibility. The report has laid bare the fact that there was no enforcement of the law and this only brought up the bigger question of lack of a policy framework with regard to hill management to prevent predatory activities on the hills that caused environmental degradation of an unprecedented nature. The report has blamed the government agencies wholesale for what we would call their collective failure. The problem with this kind of generalisation is that no individual or agency can be pinpointed -- something that is needed for initiating punitive action against the responsible. At the same time, passing the buck cannot be helpful in taking appropriate preventive action, far less punishing the offenders. So, while the experts work on formulating a hill management policy, in immediate terms, legal process against the offenders should be initiated as the government set up a coordinating body to ensure that the agencies concerned do not fail to discharge their duties in conserving the hill resources. There has been a plethora of recommendations made by the committee to set things right. Obviously, the issue has been examined in all its ramifications. But what we feel is that the focus must be on important areas like enforcement of law and coordination of all governmental activities to prevent razing of hills.
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