Residents in Sirajganj allege that farmland is being cut for fresh sand under the cover of removing sand left by river dredging. In places, dredgers have dug pits 50 to 60 feet deep in cropland, shrinking the farmed area and leaving riverside villagers afraid of erosion.
The scene was found at Nurnagar in Jhatibelai, Kamarkhanda upazila. Locals say sand is also being freshly lifted under the same cover in Alokdia, Barahar and other char areas of the district.
The rules allow only the sand piled up after river dredging to be removed. Residents say that in many places those who won the auctions are cutting cropland instead. Under the contracts, half of the sand lifted should go to the landowners and the rest to the state; the allegation is that the terms were broken after the sand was auctioned through the district administration and the Water Development Board.
Residents say that if the digging goes on, not only farmland but whole villages will be at risk. They do not want to accept the loss of land and the danger of erosion in return for money.
Sand from dredging has been removed since 2021 under the Bangali-Karatoya-Fuljhor-Hurasagar river system dredging and bank protection project, which aimed to improve navigability, control floods and stop erosion in Sirajganj and Bogura.
Md Sazzad Hossain, executive engineer of the Sirajganj Water Development Board, said the contracts of the auction winners in Jhatibelai and Alokdia have expired and have been formally ended, and that the board runs drives as soon as it receives a complaint. Residents have demanded that the illegal extraction be stopped and those involved be punished.
Agricare24's desk report draws on information from Ekhon Television.
Photo: Ayman Nakib Badhan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Agricare24
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