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Oli’s castle on beach

Pinaki Roy
Liberal Democratic Party chief and lawmaker Oli Ahmed is having a four-storey structure built in the jhau woods on the Cox's Bazar beach in violation of the environmental laws.
The site falls in the ecologically critical area (ECA), where any type of construction is prohibited by Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amendment 2010).
Oli Ahmed, a retired army colonel, had signed a deal with Impulse Properties, a real estate company, to construct the building, and unveiled the foundation stone of “IPL-Sandcastle” in November 2010.
Soon after that, the company started construction work without any permission from the authorities, thereby violating environmental rules.
Asked about the construction of the building in the ECA, the Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar, Jainul Bari, said the previous deputy commissioner had forwarded Oli's request to the ministries concerned for deciding whether he could be allowed to construct the building in the ECA. Now, the matter rests with the ministries concerned, not with me, "he said.
Oli Ahmed, communications minister in the BNP government between 1991 and 1996, had been allotted a five-katha plot in the jhau (tamarisk) woods on the beach near the airport during the tenure of the four-party government in2002.
He told The Daily Star, "I had sought permission from the government to build the structure. If I don't get the permission and the government wants to acquire my land, it should return to me the money I paid for the plot."
"I am ready to return this plot of land to the government, if necessary," said Oli Ahmed.
Apart from Oli Ahmed, four former secretaries, including Md Asaduzzaman, ex-Awami League lawmaker inTangail, had been allotted plots that fall under the ECA.
Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amendment 2010) prohibits any intervention or construction in the ECA without permission from the authorities concerned.
In April last year, Impulse Properties fenced off the plot and felled three jhau trees without the consent of the Department of Forest (DoF), which is responsible for conservation of the jhau woods on the sea beach.
Acting on information, the department seized three trunks of jhau trees from the site and asked the company
to stop the construction.
The DoF planted jhau trees on the beach on instructions from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1974, said a forest official who did not want to be named.
“The district authority can allocate government land to anyone, but none can fell trees there without our permission," the official said.
The project site has been fenced off with corrugated tin sheets, and a huge billboard has been put up with pictures of luxurious rooms. The billboard contains details of the plot, and says lawmaker Oli Ahmed Bir Bikram owns the land.
Oli Ahmed said he intended to construct a four-storey building there, and it would not be used for commercial purposes.
An Impulse Properties official ruled out any violation of environmental laws on its part, and claimed that the company is building the structure in compliance with government rules.
Nurul Alam Nizami, additional deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, said if someone applied to the district authority for a plot of land, the administration might allocate it to the applicant in line with the law.
"We have almost completed re-demarcation of the Cox's Bazar beach according to a High Court order. We have marked out all sandy areas with jhau trees as the core beach area,” said Jainul Bari, the deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar.