CDA gets legal notice over decision to cut hills in Ctg
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) has sent a legal notice to the Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) over its decision to cut five hills adjacent to the Bayezid-Fowzdarhat Link Road to make road transportation in the port city more swift.
Advocate Zakia Sultana, representing BELA, sent the notice on Tuesday (30 January).
Bela described the CDA's decision to resume hilling as environmentally hazardous and demanded the withdrawal of the decision.
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The notice highlighted CDA's previous hill-cutting operations and said already 16 hills have been cut for the construction of a road from Bayezid Bostami to Faujdarhat.
BELA said the move, despite a court order dating back to 19 March 2012 to halt all hill-cutting activities in several districts of the Chattogram division, is "a blatant disregard for judicial directives."
"We urge the formation of an expert committee to explore alternative risk mitigation strategies that do not involve further hill cutting," states the notice, emphasising the need for environmentally sustainable solutions.
In January 2020, the Department of Environment fined CDA a Tk10 crore for exceeding hill-cutting limits. In response to the plea from CDA, the fine was later reduced to Tk5 crore.
