Govt to amend law

The government has decided to lodge stricter legislation on illegal sand extractors by amending the existing law, keeping a provision of blacklisting contractors permanently and confiscating their equipment along with their lease money for violating the law.

Once finalised, the land ministry will be able to file cases against illegal sand extractors for river erosion, damages to houses, establishments, trees and crops.

According to the proposed amendment of the act, even legitimate leases will be penalised for causing such damages and compensation for the loss will be deducted from their security money.

Although the existing law, passed 11 years ago, has a provision for punishment -- a maximum of two years' imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10 lakh -- the illegal and excessive land extraction could not be stopped, putting lives and properties in many parts of the country in jeopardy.

For instance, in November last year, locals of Sharsi village in Barishal Sadar upazila submitted a complaint to the local police, seeking their help to stop illegal extractors drawing out sand from a ditch surrounding their agricultural lands using dredgers (ships equipped with one or more devices for scraping or sucking sand from the seabed).

Preferring anonymity, a top official of River Security and Traffic Management at Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority stated that haphazard setting up of dredgers creates blockage in river routes.

"We often face such problems. They (sand extractors) set up dredgers on launch routes and block the passing of vessels," he said.

On October 21, 2020, the cabinet division formed an inter-ministerial committee for the amendment of Balu Mahal (an area where sand is extracted). The committee comprises members from the land, water resource ministry and environment ministries and the cabinet division. Following their

recommendation, the land ministry brought amendments to the existing act.

Once the law ministry and the cabinet give the green signal, the bill will be produced before the parliament. Kamrul Hasan Ferdous, joint secretary of the land ministry, said, "The procedures may take another 7-8 months."

WHAT'S IN THE AMENDMENT

The proposed amendment has barred extracting sand and soil from underground that causes damages to harvesting lands. Disrupting the navigability of river routes by extraction is also prohibited.

The submitted draft has also made it mandatory for the government departments to pay for sand and soil extraction needed for respective projects and has been asked to pay off the deposit money beforehand -- an act the government was previously exempted from.

An embargo has been placed on lifting soil from personal properties especially from fertile agricultural lands for commercial purposes, damaging topsoils, the environment and neighbourhoods.

However, the act is inapplicable for barren fields, limited scale extraction and fish cultivation, as per the draft.

Other amendments in the act include carrying out a digital survey every six months to find out the amount of sand present and setting up CCTV cameras for monitoring,

Along with the act, the ministry brought forth an amendment to corresponding rules which made it mandatory to put out signboards for lease at a visible place of the Balu Mahal and banned suction dredgers, unlicensed dredgers, sub-lease and time extension.

Welcoming the act, Prof M Shahjahan Mondal, director of the Institute of Water and Flood Management of Buet, said focus should be placed on both private farms and government departments that extract sand and soil.

"There are many acts but we do not see their strict implementation," he said, underscoring the need for it.