When Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is constantly requesting the people to protect the country’s arable lands to ensure food security and economic prosperity, illegal soil extraction continues unabated in many areas of Keraniganj upazila of Dhaka district, posing serious threat to farmlands in the vicinity, despite nation-wide restrictions on the practice.
Farmers of Rohitpur and Kalatia areas of Keraniganj on Tuesday formed a human chain in front of Sonakanda police outpost demanding to stop the soil extraction immediately.
Apart from Rohitpur and Kalatia, farmers and people from all walks of life of Keraniganj upazila, joined the human chain, shouted and said they are facing serious disaster as an unscrupulous influential quarter continues cutting their crop’s lands’ fertile soil under the very nose of the authorities concerned. The aggrieved locals also sought the prime minister’s intervention in this regard.
The authorities concerned
must take strong
measures to protect
farmland from the clutches of soil mafia as early as
possible
Residents of several villages in this upazila are worried over the plunder of soil and claim that their repeated complaints to the authorities concerned against the soil mafia, powerful syndicates, that illegally lift soil and sell it to brick kilns in the past couple of years have only fallen on deaf ears. Some residents even allege that the illegal trade continues in this upazila because of local political and administrative connivance.
Many farmers were recently forced to sell their arable lands’ soil to brick kiln owner or for construction purpose as their agricultural land had been partially damaged due to illegal soil lifting from an adjacent farmland. The soil mafia lures few farmers to sell their agricultural land to local brick kiln owners at high prices. Once these brick kiln owners acquire a piece of land, they carry out illegal soil extraction in connivance with the mafia and the local political and administrative representatives.
Large-scale soil extraction usually causes severe damage to the nearby agricultural fields. And the owners of the affected farmlands are then forced to sell their fields to the same brick kiln owners through the soil mafia at throwaway prices.
Locals had filed complaints with the administration but there has been no change. Nobody dares to speak against the practice of cutting topsoil as the brick kiln owners are working in collusion with a local syndicate. Therefore, the authorities concerned must take strong measures to protect farmlands from the clutches of soil mafia as early as possible.
