Earth Filling on Meghna
Unique Property fined Tk 50 lakh
The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday fined Unique Group, a leading conglomerate, Tk 50 lakh for undertaking a housing project by earth filling low-lying and arable land on the bank of the Meghna river in violation of environment law.
The penalty is the highest so far slapped against an illegal housing project by DoE.
The department fined Unique Property Development Ltd, a concern of Unique Group, for implementing its illegal housing project fashioned Sonargaon Resort City without any permission of the department, said Muhammad Munir Chowdhury, director of DoE.
Such project is required to obtain site clearance and environmental certificate from the DoE upon endorsement of the environmental report, he said.
The company officials during a hearing said they have dumped 2.47 crore cubic feet of sand for earth filling 71 acres of wetland and agricultural land at Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj, Munir added.
A total of 30 affected farmers filed a written allegation with the DoE that the company has illegally grabbed 37 acres of their arable land, he said.
"I will recover the poor farmers land from occupancy with application of the relevant laws," the director added.
Massive earth filling over an extensive area in the river by Unique Group has destroyed the nature of land, agricultural production, fish resource, biodiversity and overall ecology.
Munir ordered the company for immediate disposal of the accumulated sand from the agricultural land and suspension of the project implementation until DoE clearance is obtained.
A general manager of the project said he did not know anything about it.
He said the company's chief executive officer could respond to the incident but he refused to give the latter's contact number.
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