Crack down on illegal dredging

EDITORIAL

The culture of impunity cannot continue

How is it that despite there being a law making extraction of sand from riverbeds a punishable offense, influential and politically connected individuals continue to do so, with complete immunity? The latest case, as reported by this newspaper yesterday, concerns the Dhaleshwari, Tangail, where a group of sand traders have been dredging the river putting a market, a crematorium, and homesteads at risk. Locals fear croplands and a bridge will go under if this continues. Yet one trader, also a former UP chairman, went as far as to say that he owned the land!

We do not think that the traders are actually unaware that rivers and the surrounding land cannot be private property. Neither should they be unaware of the law or the dangers of soil erosion. And even if they were unaware, the few mobile court raids should have been enough to set things straight. Given that the extraction begins within a few days of the occasional raids, there can be no doubt that this is wilful flouting of the law through using political connections.

The impact of dredging on the environment and local population cannot be overstated. Yet, in rivers around the country, this continues. And always, impunity enables the practice. The law cannot be selective, and raids cannot be one-offs where things go back to business as usual the minute those are over. This is a failure of the local administration, and ordinary citizens are suffering because of that. We urge the local administration to take this matter more seriously than it has till now, and not only conduct raids to destroy the equipment but also arrest the traders who continue to dredge the Dhaleshwari. The existing culture of impunity for the politically connected must be cracked down on, not only in this case, but in every sphere of administration all over the country.

Courtesy: The Daily Star Jan15, 2019