The Kuhelia crying
FROM PAGE 12
During a recent visit, this correspondent saw dozens of workers levelling the road with a roller machine near Rajghata bridge.
One worker said they were instructed to accelerate the construction work. “That’s why we’re working round the clock,” he said.
Talking to this correspondent, in late October, Fazle Rabbi, an additional chief engineer at RHD and the then project director, said they took measures to mitigate the environmental impact.
He did not give a direct response as to why they concealed information in the EIA.
“The earth would be removed after the project’s completion. You have to break something to make something,” said Fazle.
He claimed the construction work did not stymie the river current as the road is being constructed on flood plains, which he said is a common practice to control floods.
Earlier in August 2017, the Cox’s Bazar district administration, on behalf of the RHD, had sent a letter to the land ministry, seeking to lease 62 acres of land for the road construction.
As many as 54 acres of the area are river land, according to the minutes of a September 9, 2021 meeting of a committee formed by the PMO.
The ministry had rejected the proposal.
In late October last year, Amin Al Parvej, additional deputy commissioner (revenue) of Cox’s Bazar, said they sent the proposal to the land ministry considering the national importance of the project.
“The ministry asked us to send another proposal changing the status of the river,” he said.
Contacted on Thursday, he said they were yet to send the proposal. “The matter is now sub judice as a writ petition was filed in this regard,” he said, claiming that the RHD realigned the road to avoid taking river land.
Talking to The Daily Star in late October, Md Saleh Uddin, additional secretary of the land ministry (land acquisition), said, “They [Cox’s Bazar district administration] sent us a proposal to acquire the shoal of the Kuhelia river, which was identified as a river in land documents. The project director knows very well as to why we rejected the proposal. So does the deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar.”
About the land ministry’s objection, Fazle Rabbi said it was a case of one government entity building a road on another government entity’s land.
The government even allocated Tk 24 crore for land acquisition, he said, trying to justify their action.
Shafikul Islam, former assistant engineer of SMEC Bangladesh, the consultancy firm, claimed the road was being built on khas land.
The RHD had to acquire just three acres of private land at Rajghata Bridge area to begin the work, he said.
“The area was perhaps a river once. Tidal water still inundates the construction site. But when there is no tide, the flow is poor,” he said.
Land records from Matarbari Mouja show the Kuhelia is categorised as a river in CS (Cadastral Survey, 1880), RS (Revisional Survey, 1938), and BS (Bangladesh Survey, 1980).
Asked what happened to the Tk 24 crore allocated for land acquisition given they had to acquire only three acres of land, Cox’s Bazar Additional Commissioner Amin Al Parvej in late October had said he could not remember. He said the information was in the files.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), last month, said the PMO recommended building the road away from the river.
“Then how could the consulting firm flout the PMO order and fill up the river?” she asked.
Mir Nasir Hossen, managing director of the construction firm Mir Akhter Hossain Limited, said they were working as per the plan provided by the government.
“We didn’t fix any alignment by ourselves,” he said.
On September 9 last year, the PMO formed a committee to restore the river current.
The committee found proof that the river was “partially” filled up and that the road “advanced towards the river slightly”.
According to the meeting minutes, the committee recommended taking necessary steps.
Three days after the meeting, the High Court ordered the authorities to stop the construction work for three months, responding to a petition filed by BELA earlier. On September 28, the chamber judge stayed the HC order and asked the authorities to file a leave to appeal petition. A court order on the government appeal is pending.