Stone crushing in Sunamganj: BELA serves legal notice on several govt bodies

Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) today served a legal notice against six ministries, one commission and 14 other government bodies over illegal stone crushing in Sunamganj.

The legal notice was signed by BELA lawyer S Hasanul Banna, reports our Sylhet correspondent.

Secretaries to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Land Ministry, Health Ministry, Labour and Employment Ministry, Road Transport and Bridges Ministry, Commerce Ministry; director generals of the departments of environment and health services; chairman of National River Conservation Commission; chief engineer of roads and highways department were asked to stop stone crushing in four upazilas in the district.

The other respondents of the legal notice are the deputy commissioner of Sunamganj, Sunamganj Police Superintendent, Director of Department of Environment in Sylhet, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) and Police Station's Officers-in-Charge of Sunamganj Sadar, Chhatak, Tahirpur and Jamalganj upazilas.

They were asked to take steps to stop all illegal stone crushing, importing crushed stone, setting up a special stone crushing zone where environmental measures can be ensured, keeping all stone crushing operations closed till the zone is set and ensuring personal safety of all stone crushing workers in the zone.

The legal notice gave them seven working days to respond, after which they would face legal action.

BELA said in the legal notice that illegal stone crushing on river banks and nearby localities in four upazilas in Sunamganj has become a serious environmental concern, with the crushers causing serious air and sound pollution.