We express our concern over the lack of action towards the implementation of recommendations by the high level committees which on several occasions requested the authorities concerned to take specific measures to prevent landslides in the country’s hilly areas.
A report published in this daily on Tuesday says authorities concerned did not pay heed to the recommendations by high level committees, which in the past launched ‘expert’ enquiries to find causes of the disasters that lead to losses of around 500 lives since 2007.
The Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief had formed several committees to investigate the 2017 incident. Later the investigation report had recommended banning cutting of all types of forest trees in Chattogram Hill Tracts for five to seven years.
The government should ask the authorities concerned to
implement the recommendations in order save lives and
protect hills from the grabbers at any cost
It had also recommended cultivating bamboo and forest trees in the area. But the fact is that unabated tree felling continues on in the vast area of hilly regions while no initiative has yet been taken to plant bamboo and forest trees.
In most of the cases probe reports are not made public to ‘protect’ those who are accountable for such heinous crimes associated with killing people through grabbing and cutting hilly land, uprooting forest trees and constructing concrete structures without approval of the authorities concerned.
It is also learnt that such acts of illegal land grabbing of hilly land, deforestation and building structures continue to take place despite a ban on leasing out hilly land, cutting forest trees and construction of new concrete structures.
Therefore, we think the government must unmask the people involved in such heinous crimes in the hilly regions since long. The government should ask the authorities concerned to implement the recommendations in order save lives and protect hills from the grabbers at any cost. It is time to find out a permanent solution to this problem.