AL leader among three punished by mobile court
A mobile court on Friday night handed down jail term and fines to three people including a local Awami League leader for illegally extracting sand from near the Bangabandhu Bridge in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail.
The court led by Executive Magistrate Jhoton Chanda, also upazila nirbahi officer in Bhuapur, delivered seven days’ imprisonment to Mohor Ali of Lengra Bazar, while fined Masud Miah of Sirajkandi Tk 1,00,000 and Dulal Chakdar, general secretary of Govindasi union unit of AL, Tk 50,000.
The punishments were given under the ‘Balu Mohal O Mati Babosthapona Ain, 2010’ (Sand Fields and Soil Management Act, 2010), according to upazila administration sources.
The court carried out the drive as part of local administration’s routine actions against illegal lifting and selling of sand from the river, Magistrate Jhoton said.
Although sand extraction within five kilometres of a bridge is banned, organised syndicates have long been extracting it from the Jamuna near both sides of the bridge. They are also operating at least 18 illegal sand sales outlets by the river between Palshia and Jigatala.
Blaming unplanned and indiscriminate sand extraction for massive erosions by the Jamuna, locals, especially residents of Bhuapur and Kalihati upazilas, alleged that during the rule of the army-backed caretaker government that ended in 2008, the syndicate stopped the illegal activity. But they resumed their unlawful operations after the new government took charge following general elections that year.
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