Consult with workers first

Eleven eminent citizens yesterday called upon the government to hold open consultations with tea workers before setting up an economic zone on 511 acres of agricultural land at Chandpur Tea Estate in Habiganj.

In a statement, they said they were deeply concerned that a government authority is trying to hurriedly implement the decision to establish the economic zone.

Of the estate's 3,951 acres of land, 951 acres were arable land, which had been cultivated by tea workers of the area for the last 150 years. At least two crops are grown here every year, said the signatories.

Many of the families do not have any work in the estate and their only source of income is the crops they produce on this land. These families depend on this land for mere survival, they added.

The land of the estate is owned by the government and it had been leased to the estate.

On November 21, the government transferred 511 acres of the 951 acres of agricultural land to the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) to establish an economic zone there, marking the land as non-agricultural.

The statement said an injustice would be done to the tea workers of the estate and their families if the agricultural land was transferred without proper consultations with them.

“Just as economic zones are important for national development, so are agriculture and other productive sectors. Thus we hereby also appeal to the government to initiate a larger national discussion around economic zones and wise and rightful use of land required for them,” it read.

Hossain Zillur Rahman, Prof Anu Muhammad, Hameeda Hossain, Khushi Kabir, Shahidul Alam, Jyotirmoy Barua, Rahnuma Ahmed, Tanzimuddin Khan, Shamsul Huda, Hasnat Quaiyum, and Philip Gain signed the statement.