The 200 year-old Daroga pond is being filled up in the area adjacent to Mia Bazar at a distance of 300 metres from Banshkhali municipality.
Every night the hilly soil and the topsoil of the land are cut and dumped into the 5 acre pond, used by thousands of local residents.
The locals are angry with the silence of the forest department and environment department.
Although there is a commotion on social media about the filling of this traditional pond, the administration is silent. As land grabbers are dominant, no one dares to protest.
On the other hand, it is also heard that the administration has offered several lakhs of taka to silence the media and public representatives.
The upazila administration stopped the filling work a few days ago, but the filling work has started again making the local people react angrily. A ground inspection revealed that two-thirds of the pond had been filled. At the same time, preparations are underway to fill the traditional Kazi pond, which was excavated at a distance of 100 yards on an eight-acre site in the British period. Meanwhile, Assistant Commissioner (Land) Abdul Khalek Patwari visited the site and stopped the work after the incident came to light.
Residents said that thousands of men and women were using the pond owned by Tripura Charan of Ward No. 5 of the municipality.
When Tripura Charan's sons sold the ownership of the pond, the new owners thumbed the law and began filling the ground to build a business establishment.
Earlier, the market was constructed by filling the Munshi pond in Jaldi Mia market. Over 300 business establishments in the market have used water from the Daroga pond in the past few days due to fire incidents. Currently, there are no other water bodies except Daroga Pond and Kazi Pond within a half a kilometre area.
Some traders of the local Jaldi Mia market said that during the elections, the land sharks took advantage of the common people being busy, and started the work of filling the pond by cutting the hill and cutting the upper part of red soil and paddy land in the dark of night.
The people of the area will suffer greatly if the hundred-year pond is filled.
Local soil merchants Tipu and Shahidullah are continuing the work of pond filling in agreement with the current owner Md. Humayun. In this regard, the local people are protesting on social media and demanding to stop the filling of the old pond, but they are unable to open their mouths directly due to the fear of the land robbers.
It has been alleged that councillor Md Ishaq of ward 5 of the municipality is also involved in this work. However, Councillor Ishaq claimed that the allegation was baseless.
Mohammad Forkan, who is involved in filling work, said that one person was given money so that journalists do not report news. He is supposed to manage everyone.
Soil trader Mohammad Tipu said, "I have thrown soil from a few cars. I don't know who left the rest of the soil. Chechuria beat officials of Kalipur range said that a case has been filed regarding hill cutting.
Azadul Islam, Team Leader of Banshkhali Fire Service, said, 'Filling of ponds is completely prohibited. The only hope in controlling the fire is water from the pond.
Banshkhali Upazila Nirbahi Officer Jasmine Akhter said that after learning about the filling of the pond, people were sent to close it. The police administration has also been asked to take action in this regard. She doesn't know about re-filling.
