A major real estate builder has begun land-filling in the flood retention area in Ashulia, obtaining an order from a High Court (HC) division bench despite an injunction by another HC bench against earthfilling.

The Attorney General's Office had been in the dark about the fresh order until Housing and Public Works Minister Mirza Abbas went to the office yesterday with a copy of the HC order that "allowed" Jamuna

Builders Limited to fill the wetlands.

The minister and Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff also found that the documents on the injunction went missing from the HC.

Jamuna Builders Limited obtained the HC order on August 24 that restricts any effort to stop it from filling its Ashulia land.

Earlier, another HC bench issued the injunction on July 13, 2002 against the filling of the land by anyone.

The injunction came after the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers

Association (Bela) filed a petition with the HC against the filling of Ashulia lowlands.

But the minister and the attorney general found all documents on Bela's writ and the subsequent injunction missing from the HC. Ariff told newsmen about it yesterday noon.

The August 24 order in favour of Jamuna Builders came after it filed a writ on August 18 against a legal notice from Rajuk that said no-one can fill 590 wetlands demarcated

Jamuna

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under the Dhaka Master Plan.

The Attorney General's Office did not know anything about the August 18 writ against Rajuk, although informing the office about it is mandatory. The minister found that Rajuk, a respondent to the writ, was not informed either.

The attorney general described the incident as a violation of the constitution. "The High Court passed the order in favour of Jamuna Builders in the absence of any respondent. In this case, it is mandatory that the Attorney General's Office must be informed," he told the journalists.

"We will appeal against the August 24 HC order tomorrow," said the attorney general.

The HC bench comprising Justice MA Aziz and Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed issued the rule, asking Rajuk and other respondents to explain why the petitioner will not carry out the work on his Ashulia land.

With the court order in its favour, Jamuna Builders began land-filling on Saturday and employed more than 100 barges in filling the area with sand in a bid to transform it into a 'town'.

The minister said, "The way the workers are filling the land, both branches of the Turag river flowing through the area will be filled in two weeks."

"Although the HC order in favour of Jamuna Builders was issued on August 24, Rajuk did not receive it until today (Monday). The superintendent of police (SP) of Dhaka and assistant commissioner of land of Gazipur informed us about the HC order," said the minister.

"How could it be possible that a writ was filed against Rajuk and an order was passed and we couldn't know anything about it?" he wondered.

During a discussion at the Attorney General's Office with the minister, Dr Kamal Hossain showed up and described the suppression of facts as contempt of court.

Environmentalists have along emphasised that filling of the lowlands in Ashulia would divert a massive volume of floodwater towards the Dhaka Protection Embankment and might cause serious flooding.