Yard authorities talk about permission, but administration doesn’t know

In Sitakunda, Ctg, officials of the Crystal Shipyard located in Sonaichhari have been accused of filling up government canals to build shops and extracting sand from the sea with powerful dredging machines for a long time.

A local man over sixty, who did not want to be named, said that if you have money and influence, a lot can be done in nine days overnight, and the Crystal Shipyard is living proof of that. On the one hand, increasing the boundaries of their yard by extracting sand from the sea and on the other hand, filling up government canals to build shops is quite surprising. In the current situation in the country, the Crystal Shipyard, an organization that destroys the environment, is going too far, which is crossing the line.
The locals lamented that the force is the one who has the power.

If sand is continuously extracted from the sea like this, it will become a natural disaster at some point. If the sea swells, there will be no end to the suffering of the locals. Many are defending them out of greed for jobs, but they have not seen the terrible form of nature, and even if they have, they have now been sold out. We are drawing the attention of the Sitakunda Upazila Executive Officer. Our village should not be lost at the bottom of the sea due to continuous extraction of sand from the sea.

While going to the site without revealing our identity, it was seen that a huge operation to extract sand from the sea is underway in the Gamaritol area of ​​Sonaichhari Union of the upazila. In addition, the environment is under threat due to filling up government canals for a long time. Filling activities are being carried out vigorously, ignoring any rules and showing the thumbs up to the law.

When asked about the issue of filling the canal and extracting sand from the sea, Crystal Shipyard official Md. Gias Uddin said, “We are extracting sand with permission. The government has asked us to build a green yard. So we are working to build a green yard. When asked about extracting sand from the dump, he said, “We are doing everything with the permission of the administration. All the yards around are doing it, so why are they not seeing them?” He further claimed that we are not doing it in the dark by stealing.

We are doing what we are doing in broad daylight. Later, he asked the reporter to go directly to the shipyard and meet us.
When Sitakunda Upazila Executive Officer Fakhrul Islam was contacted on his mobile phone about the extraction of sand, he told Morning Glory that he did not know anything about it. The Sitakunda administration has not given any permission to anyone to extract sand and it does not have the jurisdiction. If anyone has said so, it is completely false.” He said he would speak to the higher authorities and take action on this matter.
When asked about the permission for sand mining with Chittagong Region Environment Department Director Nur Alam, he told Morning Glory, “We have asked all shipyard authorities to make green yards, but the main reason for asking for green yards is to build yards while protecting the environment. If anyone destroys the environment or mines sand on that occasion, action will definitely be taken against them.”