Ctg landowner selling banned fish feed

A landowner has been extracting and selling banned meat and bone meal (MBM) from a dumping station in port city, posing a serious health risk to humans.

On September 24 last year, Chattogram Customs House (CCH) discarded about 9,770 tonnes of seized MBM imported under false declaration between 2019 to 2021 at a rented dumping station in the port city's Anandabazar area.

The MBM was buried as intact sacks, and the CCH withdrew the Ansar guards from the facility a week after dumping the hazardous good, The Daily Star has learnt from people informed on the proceedings.

Soon after the guards were removed, Abdul Mannan, who rented the land to CCH, began digging out the buried MBM to sell to fish feed traders in Cumilla, Feni, Netrokona, Lakshmipur, Noakhali and Chattogram districts, according to police and customs.

MBM is a processed by-product of cattle, poultry and swine slaughterhouse leftovers such as bone, meat, organs, tissues and fat. It is used as animal feed including fish.

Commerce ministry banned the import and sale of MBM on December 26, 2018 following a Bangladesh Food Safety Authority report that found it harmful and carcinogenic.

On November 8 last year, Bandar Police seized 12 dump trucks loaded with MBM and six excavators from the dumping station.

"From speaking with the drivers and helpers present, it was learnt that the land owner Abdul Mannan and Nurul Kabir were carrying out the lifting operations at the site," said the first information report of the case filed the following day.

This incident did not deter them.

Five months later, Bandar Police arrested six people from the site while they were lifting and transporting the MBM. Mannan fled the scene.

Those arrested said the sacks were being excavated on Mannan's instructions, according to the FIR.

Mannan took interim bail for six weeks from the High Court on May 19 in connection with the first case, said Kishur Majumder, sub-inspector of Bandar Police Station, who is investigating both cases.

Despite the raids and cases, Mannan is still involved in smuggling the prohibited MBM from the dumping station late at night, taking advantage of the unprotected facility, according to customs sources.

"It was beyond our imagination that anyone would dig up the goods and sell these products in the market," Chattogram Custom Commissioner Mohammad Fyzur Rahman told The Daily Star.

He said that they have requested the port authority to install an incinerator to destroy the goods properly.

Besides, CCH wrote to the Chattogram District Commissioner seeking a dedicated space for destroying perishable and prohibited goods, he added.