Why sand filling in Sonargaon has not stopped

The High Court yesterday asked all 12 respondents, including high government officials, to explain why its order for stopping destruction of agricultural land and wetlands by sand filling in six moujas of Narayanganj's Sonargaon has not yet been complied.  

The HC bench of Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das came up with the order while hearing a contempt petition.

On January 17, when Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) moved the petition before the court, alleging that sand filling of arable land was going on in defiance of the court order, the court verbally ordered an immediate halt to the land filling, said a lawyer of the petitioner.   

Acting on a public interest litigation, the HC in March 2014 banned destruction of these ecologically-sensitive agricultural land, adjoining wetlands and ecology by the Meghna river in Jainpur, Chaihishya, Char Bhabnathpur, Bhatibanda, Pirojpur and Ratanpur moujas.  

The court injunction then barred any further damage to the villagers so largely dependent on agriculture and ordered the developer for restoration of the arable land to the original state.

The sand filling was first launched by a real estate developer in 2009 for a resort city. It was then stopped for two years in the face of court injunction. But later it resumed for private Sonargaon Economic Zone. 

The court yesterday also asked for explanation why legal action should not be taken against the respondents for non-compliance. 

The respondents include secretaries to the ministries of housing and public works, land, environment and forests, and home affairs, director general, a director and a deputy director of the Department of Environment, deputy commissioner of Narayanganj, Sonargaon upazila nirbahi officer and assistant commissioner (land) of Sonargaon and managing directors of Unique Property Development Ltd and Sonargaon Economic Zone.   

Chief Executive of Bela Syeda Rizwana Hasan said hearing on the contempt rule would continue this week and the judgment would be delivered next week.  

It may be noted that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on January 18 called upon the world community for greater emphasis on agriculture for food security to reduce risk of lives and livelihoods of farmers, fishermen and women at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos of Switzerland.

In April last year at Krishibid Institution, Hasina said her government would not allow indiscriminate industrialisation destroying cultivable land and forests.

Terming Bangladesh an agriculture-dependent country, the PM said the country will surely go for industrialisation, but not at the cost of agriculture. Industries would be accommodated in 100 special economic zones to be built across the country.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics findings, the country is losing agricultural land at a rate of around 1 percent every year and is feared to lose a third of its agricultural land in the next 25 years unless the trend is halted.