CPB demands judicial probe, punishment to culprits

Sitakunda upazila unit of Community Party of Bangladesh (CPB) here yesterday demanded judicial probe into the destruction of green forest belt at Sonaichhari coast and exemplary punishment to the persons involved.
The organisation leaders at a press conference held at Chittagong Press Club also put up several other demands, including immediate introduction of set of rules for developing ship-breaking yards of international standards in a planned way without harming the coastal green belt.
At the press conference they said the coastal embankment and forest belt that started developing following cyclonic storms and tidal upsurge of 1960 and 1970 saved lives and properties at north Sitakunda during the cyclonic storm of 1991.
But, in absence of specific rules, an ill competition was on to set up ship-breaking yards reportedly through grabbing land and destroying green forest belt along the coast that exposed lives and properties of coastal people of the upazila to different cyclonic storms and tidal surges, they said.
They wanted to see full implementation of the timely speeches the prime minister recently made at the Commonwealth Summit and other international forums to protect the environment.
The other demands include restoration of razed forests and re-afforestation at coast and hills of the upazila in a planned way, stopping unplanned construction of highway, roads and industrial units through acquisition or purchase of coastal and cultivatable lands, construction of alternative highway on coastal embankment, building railway link to every container yards and transportation of goods through railway wagons, introduction of commuter train service from Chittagong to Feni and required renovation of Dhaka-Chittagong railway tracks.
CPB Sitakunda upazila unit President Md Masihud Dowla read out the written statement at the press conference where CPB Chittagong district unit President Comrade Mrinal Sen, General Secretary Comrade Md Shah Alam, Comrade Uttam Chowdhury and Sitakunda upazila unit General Secretary Comrade Advocate Zahir Uddin Mahmud replied to different queries of the journalists.