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Rock lifting frenzy in the North

Arable lands vanish fast over people's greed

Shamim Ashraf and Kongkon Karmakar
Without caring at all for the government permission or maintaining environment codes, people are lifting rocks from vast patches of cultivable land in Panchagarh and some parts of Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari.
Once arable, the pieces of land
in the neighbourhoods of Tentulia turn uncultivable as the rock-lifters, who don't pay the government any revenue, abandon those.
After extracting every available piece of rock, the lifters find it too expensive to fill up the pits, which contain only sand and oozing water and lie unused for years.
Construction firms are encouraging the trade as these rocks arc
much cheaper than hard rocks due to the easy availability and low make-up and can be used in building high-rises, say officials in Maddhapara Granite Mining Company Limited (MGMCL).
"Banking on poverty of the people, businesspersons are damaging productivity of the cultivable land. Rock-lifting here can be
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termed a one-time use of the land," environmentalist Dr Ainun Nishat told The Daily Star yesterday.
The district administrations responsible for monitoring the rock-lifting have turned a blind eye on such activities.
"We're looking into what to do with the individuals willing to lift rock from their land. No individual comes to us for permission, and, in fact, the rules cannot be imposed on all," said Deputy Commissioner of Panchagarh Hafiz Uddin on Sunday.
The people however have to get permission from the local administration for lifting rocks from riverbeds, he added.
Of the country's total annual demand of 80 lakh tonnes of rocks, 16 percent comes from Maddhapara, while the rest is imported and collected from Zaflong, Tentulia, Sitakundu and other local sources.
On way to Tentulia, home of Panchagarh's rock stock, many rock-lifting spots were seen in villages on both sides of the road from Thakurgaon.
I he main rock spots are on the sides of the main road of Tentulia with most in Bhajanpur Union Parishad.
"While ploughing my land in the beginning of this year, I noticed rocks and decided to sell those as
paddy yields little profit nowadays," Abu Bakar, a farmer of Gopaldiganj village in Bhajanpur, said while supervising rock-lifting in his three decimal land.
The labourers wrho were already digging 25-foot below the surface said they would go five more feet down. But Bakar denied it after realising that he was talking to a journalist.
Officials at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources say anyone willing to excavate any land, be it private or public, requires permission from the Bureau of Mineral Development (BMD) and the environment ministry.
"They have to submit their plans with drawings detailing different aspects of preserving social and natural environment," says an official of the ministry.
Since BMD does not have necessary workforce, the government tasked the DCs to deal with rocklifting in their areas a year ago, BMD Director Mahmud Hasan said.
"People can collect anything from the surface of their land, but will need the government permission to dig their land for mineral resources," hesaid.
MokhIesur Rahman of Bhajanpur is lit ting rocks beside his house in a joint venture with his cousin. He said they have already gone 30-foot down.
"Since we're getting more rocks, we'll expand the digging sideways now’." he added.
Khoniaganj in the same union is the densest with abandoned rock pits and piles of rocks, both sorted and mixed, scattering over an area of several square kilometres.
Atiar Rahman, the main rocklifter in the area, started digging up his six-bigha land where he used to grow paddy five years ago.
On the government permission. Atiar’s 15-year-old son Rubel, who looks after the rock-lifting, said, "No-one needs others' permission to their own land.”
On the government monitoring, he added. "A few years ago the government tried to impose restriction on digging more than four feet. But they don't come anymore."
No-one of the rock-lifters has necessary educational background. "We've been doing this for years. We know how to do it. we know when the soil may slide." said Lokman, an employee working at Mokhlesur'sland.
Abu Bakar. Rubel and some other rock-lifters were prompt to say that they would cultivate the land again. Standing amidst innumerable pits remaining abandoned for several years, they however failed to show any example cultivating the abandoned rock pits.
"It won't be a matter of concern
if they lift rocks from rivers because the river waters will bring in fresh rocks," Ainun Nishat said.
Saying that the rock-lifting has changed the characteristics of the cultivable land, he termed it a great agricultural loss "because they could cultivate several crops in the land round the year ".
Asked about the district administration's role to stop lifting rocks in Dimla without permission, Nilphamari DC Rashidul Hasan said he did not have information about such individuals.
Our Nilphamari correspondent reports individuals also Lift rocks in Hatibandh and Patgram in Laltnonirhat without permission.
After sorting out the rocks, the lifters wait for buyers who go to the pits with trucks and buy the cheap rocks.
Officials of MGMCL say small, hard and igneous rocks aged about 450 crore years lifted from Maddhapara cost Tk 54/cft. while the rocks, which are 50-60 crore years old, sell at Tk 36-38/cft.
As construction firms prefer these cheap rocks for roads and high-rises to expensive hard rocks, condition of the roads deteriorates within short time, sources say.
"To ensure quality construction, the government can set chemical analysis for rocks used in roads and buildings,” AQM Salim. MGMCL chief executive, told 1 he Daily Star