Risky living on hill slopes
Around 30,000 people in the hill district are vulnerable to landslides in the rainy season due to massive hill cutting and building houses on hill slopes.
A large number of unplanned houses have sprung up on hill slopes and at the foot of the hills in the tourist district, thanks to the negligence of the authorities and their indifference toward enforcing environmental laws, according to sources.
Every year in the rainy season, landslides kill many people in the district.
As the monsoon sets in, triggering the probability of landslides, district information officials urge residents to leave vulnerable homes and go to safer places through announcements in all upazilas.
During recent visits to several places in sadar upazila and Lama, this correspondent witnessed scores of poor families living in shabby houses that are noticeably more exposed to landslides.
A huge number of mud and thatched houses in the areas have been built by cutting hills. Neither the district administration nor Bandarban Hill District Council (BHDC) has taken any initiative to rehabilitate the vulnerable families, the local people complained.
Moniraj Begum of Sikdarpara has been living in such a thatched cottage. She said no one cares about their future or takes any initiative to rehabilitate them at a safer place.
Many more such thatched and semi-pucca houses are there on both sides of the Chittagong-Bandarban road, which are very risky in the rainy season.
However, the district administration so far has not taken any visible step to prevent locals from building houses on hill slopes or by cutting hills. It has not even taken action against the land grabbers and hill cutters, sources in the district administration admitted while talking to this correspondent.
Contacted, K M Tariqul Islam, deputy commissioner of Bandarban, said he had given directives to all upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs) to alert people about possible landslides.
"I also ordered the district information office to make announcements all over Bandarban so that people could take shelter in safer places", he added.
The DC, however, claimed that no major hill cutting in Bandarban had taken place in recent days. He also added that the administration was prepared to tackle any natural disaster.
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