Illegal sand mining from Padua forest managing UP Chairman

Lohagara (Chittagong) Correspondent :

The festival of illegal sand mining is going on openly in Padua forest of Padua Union of Lohagara, Chittagong.

Locals have complained that these illegal activities are being carried out by the sand traders managing the UP Chairman of Padua.

At present, the large depot of Coriander Bill of Safura canal running through the forest Padua, 200 feet below the hill in the south of the same place, 1500 feet below the hill of Kanthalia Char, 300 feet below the hill of Ulubnia Para and 300 feet below the same place is being lifted.

It is also known that each car sand is sold for 1800 to 2000 taka. In which they give 200 taka to the owner of the place or if the owner is weak, threats are given instead of money.

Three-four people who stay at the pick-up place get 50 taka per car. Also, at the end of the day, 2000 taka per day from each place, a total of ten thousand taka is present.

Two huge piles of sand seized In the army operation in Bandarban, a neighboring upazila, were sold by auction to give dust in the eyes of the administration.

The sands were sold by payment of government revenue at a fixed token per vehicle. Jungle Padua sand from those who bought the said sand through postal auction.

Traders buy each book of tokens for around thirty thousand rupees. Each revenue book contains 100 tokens.

After buying the revenue books, one token is handed over to the drivers of each drum truck used for transporting sand.

If you show the token, you can pass as auction sand. As a result, you don’t have to face any legal problems.

In this regard, Padua UP Chairman Mr. Harun-or-Rashid denied this allegation and said that I have no involvement with all this.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer UNO Sharif Ullah said, I have received information about this. Very soon the operation will be conducted in these places.