Fine slapped on 3 Sylhet realtors

The Department of Environment yesterday fined three housing companies for filling up water bodies and cutting hills at Dakshin Surma, Fenchuganj Road and Tamabil Bypass.
A team led by Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, director (Monitoring and Enforcement) of the DoE, asked Ruposhi Bangla Housing at South Surma, Al-Baraka Housing on Tamabil Bypass and Royal City Housing at Lalmatia and Parairchak on Fenchuganj Road to stop their activities.
The team discovered that over 79 acres of wetlands, canals and lowlands have already been filled up, which has affected the environment and biodiversity of the area as natural water receding system has been blocked.
During the drive, the officials found a seven feet deep water body being filled.
Such activities also caused huge loss to agricultural farming and fishing, DoE director told The Daily Star. None of the companies obtained permission from the district administration or from the DoE for their activities, he added.
The DoE penalised Ruposhi Bangla Housing Tk 8.7 lakh, Al-Baraka Housing Tk 10.88 lakh and Royal City Housing Tk 14.8 lakh and asked them to pay the sums by April 10. The team also seized four bulldozers, excavators, 65 bags of cement and 800 kg of iron rods during the drive.
Moreover, DoE would ask the authorities of Bangladesh Bank, Jalalabad Gas and Palli Bidyut Samity not to sanction any loan or provide gas and electric connections to those companies, he said. More unauthorised housing companies will face the same fate in the near future, he warned.
On the other hand, the DoE team also visited two other sites at Boldi of Dakshin Surma upazila where hills were being cut and ordered for cases to be filed against those responsible.