‘This is a fight to save our land’

Mongla Port authorities have declared war against the people of Banishanta union in Khulna's Dacope upazila, as they are adamant to dump sand on cropland despite objection from locals, said civil-society leaders.

As part of their dredging works in Pashur river, the port authorities want to pile up 2.16 crore cubic metres of sand on 300 acres of cropland in Banishanta, adjacent to the river, which could put the livelihood of 5,000 farmers in danger, they said.

They raised the issue at a rally organised at Banishanta on Tuesday.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (Bela), said the port authorities were not paying any heed to finding alternative sites for dumping sand, as suggested by locals and civil-society members.

"Thus, they declared war against Banishanta people by rejecting the plea to save their cropland. The authorities are saying farmers can produce crops only once a year, which is completely false. They have been producing crops there three times a year," she said.

Rizwana urged the government to form a committee consisting of representatives from the agriculture ministry to verify the claim of port authorities.

Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori, said, "Whenever we try to contact the port authorities to inform our concern, they can't even manage time to listen to us. That proves they don't have any answer to our question."

She also urged farmers to resist the port authorities' move, as this movement is for protecting the country's arable land. "Protect your cropland; lie down on your land when they come to dump sand," she said. 

Robaet Ferdous, professor of mass communication and journalism at Dhaka University, said at a time when the prime minister is forecasting a famine and urging people not to leave an inch of land uncultivated, the port authorities are hell-bent on destroying cropland.

"They stood against the prime minister's stance. Development should take into account people's opinion. If people don't want it, that is not development. There can't be any development against the people's will," he said.

Khan Mansur Ali, upazila chairman of Dacope upazila, alleged that the chairman of Mongla Port treats people of the area as sub-human whenever they approach him to talk about the sand dumping.

Kajol Debnath, adviser of Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad; Shamsul Huda, executive director of ALRD (Association of Land Reform and Development); Khudrat-e-Khuda, president of Pokriti Surokka Mancha; and Ashoke Saha, coordinator of BLAST, Khulna, spoke, among others, at the rally.