Sand plundering unabated

Some people belonging to the ruling party are indiscriminately plundering sand from the silt trap near Teesta Barrage under Water Development Board (WDB) at Dalia in Dimla upazila.

Sub-Divisional Engineer (SDE) of the mechanical division of WDB Rubayat Imtiaz said the water in the Teesta river coming from upstream during the rainy season carries a huge quantity of silt, mostly sand and deposits it in a silt trap beside Teesta Barrage.

After the rainy season, WDB removes the silt using dredgers and discharges it in the dumping ground one km away so that the silt trap can collect silt again in the next season.

“We sell the sand collected from here to different places for Tk 800 to Tk 1,000 per tractor. Around 30 tractors make 100 to 150 trips daily in all,” said another driver Faridul Islam.

“We pay Tk 200 for each trip to local ruling party man Abdul Kalam as he controls the area, otherwise his men do not allow us to touch the sand,” tractor driver Abdul Kader said.

Kalam, who is an influential member of ward No-1 unit of the ruling party in Khalisha Chapani union, rejected the allegation of realising money from tractor drivers, saying that they willingly donate money for a local club for social work.

A number of locals alleged that an employee of WDB, who looks after the area, takes some of the realised money from Kalam to distribute to WDB officials.

SDE Rubayat Imtiaz said they use dredgers to remove around one lakh cubic metres of silt, mostly sand, every year from the silt trap and the civil engineering division is responsible for looking after the dumping ground.

“I wrote a letter to the executive engineer of the civil engineering division in Dalia a few days ago, requesting them to take measures to stop sand lifting as unauthorised people steal the pipes of the dredgers, but there has been no response yet,” the SDE added.

Section Officer (SO) of the division Hafizul Islam rejected the allegation that his men take money from sand lifters.

“We do not have enough manpower to tackle the situation as the sand lifters even threaten us,” he added.

“If we get specific allegation with the vehicle's registration number, we will file a case against the owner and driver,” said Executive Engineer  of the division Mostafizur Rahman.

“I will write to the higher authorities so that they sell the sand from the silt trap, which will bring revenue for the government as there is no such directive now in this regard,” he added.