The authorities of Government Barishal College are accused of filling a pond in breach of the Natural Water Bodies Conservation Act, reportedly to build a student hostel on it. City corporation officials went to the site and stopped the work on Sunday, 18 October, and the Department of Environment says an inspection confirmed the filling and it is serving a notice on the principal.
The pond once covered about 30 decimals. On Sunday part of its southern side was found already filled. Local people said trucks had been dumping sand since Saturday evening and a third of the pond was filled overnight. Residents of the area also used the pond.
Linkon Bayen, Barishal divisional coordinator of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), said the pond lies outside the college boundary, that attempts to fill it go back a long way and environmentalists have campaigned against them. The pond used to meet local people's need for water, he said; now government people themselves are filling it in breach of the law, a gross violation of environmental law.
Md Lokitullah Sikder, head of the city corporation's eviction section, said that on the administrator's orders they went at noon on Sunday and told the principal of the legal obligation to stop; the principal said he would, and legal action will follow if he does not. Under the Natural Water Bodies Conservation Act 2000, he said, filling any pond within a city is a punishable offence, changing its land category is banned, and the maximum penalty is five years in prison.
Local people allege the filling was being done with the help of Rafiqul Islam Tipu, president of the college unit of Chhatra Dal. Tipu says the site is a ditch on college land where a hostel named after Ashwini Kumar Dutta will be built. Principal Dr Mohiuddin said a three-member college committee had been in charge of the filling.
Kazi Saifuddin, assistant director of the Department of Environment in Barishal, said staff sent on Sunday morning confirmed the pond was being filled in breach of the law, and the college authorities are being served a notice.
Reporting: Ajker Patrika, Barishal
Photo: Happiest persoN / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Ajker Patrika
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