Pond illegally filled by college principal: work halted by City Corporation, notice coming from environment department
Accusations of illegally filling a pond have been raised against the authorities of Government Barishal College itself, in violation of the water-body conservation law. The college's principal, Professor Md. Mohiuddin, reportedly took the plan to fill the pond to build a student dormitory. After sand was dumped under cover of night on Saturday, officials of the Barishal City Corporation arrived on Sunday afternoon and halted the work. The Department of Environment has also inspected the site, confirmed the filling, and decided to serve a notice on the college authorities.
The pond at Government Barishal College once covered nearly 30 shotangsho. A visit on Sunday showed that a considerable portion of the pond's southern side had already been filled in earlier. According to local residents, trucks began arriving with sand on Saturday evening, and by the end of the night nearly one-third of the pond had been filled. The investigating officials said the filling was carried out without any permission.
Locals alleged that the authorities suddenly began filling the pond on Saturday with the help of Rafiqul Islam Tipu, the president of the college unit of the Chhatra Dal. Residents expressed anger over the move. They said they had long used the pond themselves, and the overnight dumping of sand into the water body has caused anxiety across the area.
Rafiqul Islam Tipu, however, presented his own version to journalists. 'It is a ditch. We will build a student hostel named after Ashwini Kumar Dutta there. The college authorities are dumping sand,' he said. He claimed, 'This is not City Corporation land; it is college land. Yet on Saturday night, administrator Bilkis Akter Jahan Shirin sent police to stop the sand dumping.' He also questioned how the City Corporation could stop work on college property.
Lincoln Bayen, the Barishal divisional coordinator of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), rejected that argument. He said the pond of Barishal College lies outside the college's boundary. Attempts to fill it have been going on for a long time, he alleged, and environmentalists have even protested against it. According to him, the pond of Barishal College carries many memories and used to meet the water needs of locals. 'Now government people themselves are filling the pond in violation of environmental law; this is a gross violation of environmental law,' he said.
After receiving the news, a team from the Barishal City Corporation reached the spot on Sunday afternoon. Md. Lakitullah Sikder, head of the corporation's eviction branch, said, 'On the administrator's orders we went to the scene on Sunday afternoon. We informed the principal of the legal obligation to stop the earth filling. The principal said he will stop the work. Otherwise legal action will be taken.'
Explaining why the pond cannot be filled, officials said it is a water body. Under the Natural Water Bodies Conservation Act, 2000, filling any pond within a metropolitan area is a punishable offense, and even changing its classification is prohibited. Violating this law can lead to up to five years of imprisonment. Officials commented that the principal, himself a government officer, cannot fill a pond by dumping sand in violation of the law.
When contacted, Government Barishal College principal Dr. Mohiuddin told journalists that a three-member committee formed by the college was in charge of the filling work. He said Chhatra Dal leader Tipu, being a local resident, stays at the site all the time. However, the principal could not give a satisfactory explanation as to why he had started such work without permission.
Meanwhile, Kazi Saifuddin, assistant director of the Department of Environment in Barishal district, said he sent staff to the site on Sunday morning after getting the news. They confirmed that the pond had been filled in violation of environmental law. A notice is being issued to the college authorities, which will mention the specific provisions of the environmental law that were violated.
Such filling of water bodies is nothing new in Barishal. Under the pressure of the city's growing population, ponds and water bodies are being filled one after another. Environmentalists fear that if this continues, Barishal's water balance will be destroyed and waterlogging in the monsoon season will become even worse. The city's lowlands and ponds are the main natural drainage channels; losing them makes disaster inevitable.
Environmental law experts say such irregularities could be prevented if the Natural Water Bodies Conservation Act were effectively enforced. The law states that no pond, water body, river or canal may be filled within a city corporation area, and even their classification cannot be changed. Yet in reality the law often becomes ineffective in the hands of influential people, critics allege. This incident in Barishal has brought that old complaint to the fore once again.
All eyes are now on the Department of Environment's notice and the City Corporation's next steps. Barishal residents are waiting to see what reply comes to the notice, whether a case is filed against the principal, and whether the filled portion is restored and the pond re-excavated. Locals demand that the water body be restored to its previous condition and that exemplary action be taken so that no one can violate the law this way in the future.
