Allegations zero in on CCC

Chowdhury also said that Foys Lake Concord has taken lease of 336 acres of land from Bangladesh Railway for 50 years, and due to the presence of large number of people in the area, the Railway hasn handed over the total land according to the agreement.

Around 100 acres of land are occupied by inhabitants but it should go to Concord, according to the agreement, he added.

It is completely against the law that the City Corporation has started a project on Railway land and did not even inform officially, Chowdhury said, adding that the Divisional Commissioner also sent a letter to CCC, which also did not get any reply.
When the correspondent reached Sheikh M Towhidul Islam, Chief Executive Officer of CCC and asked about the letter, he said, It was a general letter we received from Railway and did not think of any reply.

When asked why CCC did not get any permission from the Railway before the projects and why the local councillor was accused of hill cutting, he refused to answer and said, "I could not comment on anything. As far as I know, the project is stopped now and no development is going on.

Akbar Shah ward has come under the much less developed category, and the City Corporation and local councillor have decided to implement the projects there.

Why has the LIUPC project been implemented in the Akbar Shah Area, and what was the aim of the project to build roads and provide water and utility? This correspondent tried to find the answer and went to the UNDP office. They explained that the City Corporation is looking after all the development works while UNDP is funding and providing all the technical support.

UNDP said they turned muddy roads metalled, did not raze any hill and provided water and sanitation facilities to improve the livelihood of people living there. UNDP has divided all 31 wards into four categories: risky development, much less development, less development, and comparatively high development.

Why did UNDP agree to implement the project at Akbar Shah when the DoE, Railway and Divisional Commissioner did not give any permission? They said CCC informed that they had taken permission from all authorities. As it is a government project, we believed them.

Sarower Hossain Khan, Town Manager of UNDP, who looks after the LIUPC project, said it was our pilot project for the marginalised people, and we have some positive-negative learning.

We will not repeat the project ever in any city corporation area, he said, adding that we are not rehabilitating any people in the area, just improving the facilities. And we have no idea whether the people have shifted here after the development.

UNDP also sent a reply letter on December 3 to DoE and stated that their project is for marginalised people who have been living here for a long time and not for damaging the environment. It built a Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) for sanitation and wastewater, also testified by Bio-Chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), that the development will not be the reason for any damaging effect on biodiversity and humans.

In the letter, it also enclosed some pictures of the before and after scenarios and the BOD test report; this corresponded collected the letter.

On September 9, 2023, on behalf of the local people of Akbar Shah and Pahartali Police Station area, it sent a letter to M Tajul Islam, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives stating how local councillor Jahurul Alam Jasim has destroyed hills, made plots and sold those and established his supremacy and why the CCC does not suspend him.

The ministry received the letter and ordered a proper investigation of the allegation and necessary action. After all the allegations, no action was taken by the City Corporation against the Councillor. This correspondent has the copy of the letter.

Denying the allegation of damaging the hill and establishing supremacy, Jahurul Alam Jasim said to ruin my good political reputation, my opponent group had blown out the false information accusing me of being one of the hill destroyers.

"Whoever is accusing me is wrong," he said, adding that DoE has filed several cases against me based on false information.

Jasim claimed that he has been trying to help people who have been living in the area for a long time, and his political motto is to work for them.

Following all this, the Department of Environment (DoE) filed three cases against Jahurul and his wife for destroying the hills. Wali Uddin Akbar, Officer-in-Charge of Akbar Shah Thana, said two cases are being tried in the court while another is being investigated. Besides, the local councillor is accused in more than 20 cases under Akbar Shah, Khulshi and Pahartali Police stations. The correspondent has the copies of the charge sheet and all case numbers of hill-cutting cases.

Why are the government projects not interested in obtaining permission from authorities concerned and what does the law say? The correspondent has talked to Special Public Prosecutor of Divisional Environment Court SHM Humayun Rashid Talukder, and he said the loopholes in the environmental laws have encouraged the illegal occupation and hill razing.

It is high time to review the existing laws and strengthen the institutional framework. He also emphasised the laws for the management and control of destructive activities on hills effectively adding that the punishment and amount of the fine for hill destruction is comparatively less compared with the crime.

He said there is no special law for government projects that denies other authorities. Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amended in 2000) said cutting hills without having approval from the environmental authorities is prohibited.

The law is not strict itself, and the destroyers are taking advantage of it, Talukder said, adding that the government has given the power to a special magistrates court to dispose of the cases of hill destruction in the last two years and thats the reason the crime has increased.

The number of cases of environmental damage has decreased in the last few years, and a few cases have arrived in the divisional environment court for hearing of those who have already destroyed the hills, the lawyer opined.

VIP people are the accused of hill cutting, not the workers who are employed. The accused should not get bail immediately, whoever they are, and the amount of the fine must be raised, which may reduce hill-cutting incidents in future, he said. All the laws and letters could not stop the hill destroyers, while the DoE department was limited to filing the cases and fining only.

But Nur Jahans family and many more are living under the risk of the landslide. In every monsoon, authorities do some duty work, including moving some families to shelter and providing some food that is inadequate, according to all. But no one has been punished for the crime.

[The investigation was conducted as part of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) fellowship.]