Sirajganj Correspondent: Common farmers are suffering due to illegal river digging in Kamarkhand, Sirajganj. Local Awami League leaders have threatened to kill people for not keeping sand on crop land. The aggrieved farmers have complained to the concerned department, including the District Commissioner, to investigate the incident and take action against the culprits.
It is known that the contract company Ayan Construction got the work on the Jhatibelai Phuljor river dredging project. The manager of the company. Yusuf, Bhadraghat Union Awami League member and former UP member Abul Kalam Mandal, Bhadraghat Union Ward No. 9 Awami League President Jamal Uddin Talukder, Vice President and former UP member Anwar Talukder, and several others led by illegally installing dredgers and excavating sand and piling it on the land of ordinary farmers. is The manager of the contracting company threatened farmers with disappearance and death if sand was prohibited in the cropland. Local Awami League leaders, including Yusuf. About 40 to 45 bigha crops are damaged due to keeping sand on crop land.
According to the source of the complaint, the Bengali, Karatoa, Phuljore, and Hurasagar rivers are mainly dug with a 20-inch hydraulic dredger, but the contractor company Ayan Construction has been digging the river with a 12-inch Bengali dredger. Local farmers are suffering as croplands on both banks of the river are lost in the river due to the digging of the river by Bengali dredgers. Apart from this, various structures, including the Kamarkhand-Nalka road, are under threat due to the landslide of the road next to the river.
On behalf of the victims, farmer Mahfuzur Rahman said that we have filed a written complaint with the Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police, Upazila Executive Officer, OC of Kamarkhand Police Station, and Executive Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department to take action against the contractors and local Awami League leaders for destroying the crops of our cropland and disrupting cultivation. . After receiving the complaint, the administration officials and the police visited the site and fined the contractor.
Accused manager of Ian Construction. Yusuf said that the Assistant Commissioner (Land) ordered him to remove the pipe and fined him for taking the sand pipe over the road. Later, the pipe was not removed as permission was obtained from the road department. We are not doing any illegal work here; legal work is being done. Even then, the locals have to manage and work.
Mahbubur Rahman, Executive Engineer of Sirajganj Water Development Board, said that we have not received any complaints from the farmers affected by the sand raised by the Phuljor river in the Jhatibelai area. However, the local administration has fined the contractor for extracting sand with illegal dredgers in the Phuljor River dredging project. I have been informed by the Executive Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department about the collapse of the road due to illegal digging of the river. However, the collapsed road is not in the records of the Water Development Board. The roads and highways department can take action regarding the road.
Assistant Commissioner (Land) Suma Khatun, who is in charge of Kamarkhand Upazila Nirbahi Officer, said that an operation was conducted in the area based on the news that illegal dredgers were being dug in the Phuljor river. The contractor has been fined one lakh rupees for digging the river by installing illegal dredgers in the operation. Earlier, Yusuf, who is in charge of the contractor, was fined Tk 20,000 for obstructing traffic by placing sand pipes on the road.
