HC calls for all Jamuna River shortening Project docs
Staff Reporter :
The High Court has called for all the documents related to the Jamuna River shortening project. Authorities of the Bangladesh Water Development Board have been asked to submit the documents with the court within 10 days.
The High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by some Supreme Court lawyers on behalf of a rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
The court has fixed June 11 for further hearing on the issue.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Abul Kalam Khan Daud represented the state.
On March 12 this year, a Bangla daily published a report under the banner of “A plan for narrowing Jamuna River (Jamuna nodi chhoto korar chinta)”. The writ petition was filed in the first week of this month annexing the published report.
The officials involved in the ‘Jamuna River narrowing project’ have committed misconduct under Rule 2 of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018. Therefore, the writ sought direction from the HC to take action against them. It also prayed to the court to issue a rule regarding the matter.
Lawyer Manzill Murshid said, “The High Court on May 21 sought a list of the officials involved in the project. It also wanted to know whether the project has been finalized and the authenticity of the published report. Since the state lawyer sought time to provide this information, the High Court today (May 28) calls for all the documents of the project.”
The lawyer said, “The ECNEC has a decision to maintain the flow of a river by digging it. However, there is another decision that no project can be taken by occupying rivers, canals and reservoirs. As a result, the officials who have taken up this project disobeyed the government’s decision. This is a misconduct. Action can be taken against them.”
According to the published report, the Water Development Board has prepared a project proposal of Tk 11.10 billion to reduce the width of the Jamuna River to 6.5 kilometres from 15 kilometres.
The Ministry of Water Resources has already sent the proposed project titled ‘Sustainable Infrastructure for Jamuna River Bank Protection and Risk Mitigation’ to the Planning Commission.
The National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways has urged the government to cancel the project. In a statement it said major natural disasters might occur in the near future if such ‘an ill-fated project’ was implemented on such a large river.
The National Committee also said in the statement that if the project was implemented without proper research, there would be no water flow in many places of the river and ground water level would drop in those areas. At the same time, agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity, livelihood and ecology may be affected.
