‘Legalising’ illegal sand mining
In the last five years, local influential people have raked in Tk 180 crore by ripping apart Fasiakhali and Fulchhari forests using a lease document, which Forest Department has repeatedly been trying to get cancelled, but in vain.
Chakaria Sundarbans nears extinction as shrimp farming takes over
If you cruise through the Ujantia canal up to its estuary with the Matamuhuri river of Cox’s Bazar, you will see the last remnants of a mangrove forest, almost obliterated from the country’s south-eastern landscape.
Visiting Sundarbans just got costlier
The government has revised fees in the Sundarbans after a decade, doubling it for both local and foreign tourists and for people whose livelihoods depend on it.
No country for elephants
As if it wasn’t hard enough for elephants to survive in this country, in a tragic development, it was discovered that they are not just dying by electrocution. Shooting down the animals straight up has become seemingly rampant to protect encroached forest lands.
When land costs more than just money
On an unfortunate morning in April 2009, Kabir Ahmed and his wife were working in the backyard of their home in Patenga of port city. All of a sudden, an altercation over land broke out in front of them. At one point, some people swooped on a youth and hacked him with machetes.
Senior secretary pulled strings
Sacked ACC officer Sharif Uddin said the senior secretary of a ministry, who had links to the land acquisition scammers in Cox’s Bazar, used his influence to get him fired from his job.
Praised until he stepped on toes
A skilled and judicious officer, who is well experienced in investigation. He is worthy of promotion.
Whose side is ACC on?
Over the last three years, Sharif Uddin painstakingly enquired and investigated corruption allegations and recommended the Anti-Corruption Commission file 22 graft cases against various individuals and quarters in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar.
Chemical stores, Plastic factories: Long wait for relocation
The government’s move to relocate hazardous chemical warehouses and plastic factories from the congested neighbourhoods of Old Dhaka remains in limbo, 11 years after the initiative was taken in the aftermath of the Nimtoli inferno.
Single-use plastic: Coastal areas still littered with them
The Department of Environment has failed to comply with a High Court directive that asked it to stop the use of single-use plastic in hotels, motels, and restaurants of coastal areas in two years.