The authorities on Wednesday began drives against the people responsible for widespread looting of stones from Sadapathar, a popular tourist spot, at Bholaganj under Companiganj upazila in Sylhet district.
The indiscriminate looting of white stones by a group of unscrupulous people having political connections has destroyed the Sadapathar tourist spot.
The Anti-Corruption Commission Sylhet office on Wednesday blamed inaction of the local administration for the stone looting.
Responding to a query from reporters, ACC Sylhet office deputy director Rafi Md Nazmus Sadat said that influential politicians, businesses and local residents might have been involved in the widespread looting of stones at Sadapathar.
Local people said that once there were millions of white stones at the tourist spot, but now it looked like a wasteland due to the indiscriminate looting of the natural resources.
They alleged that the looting of stones worth several hundred crores of taka occurred under the nose of the administration.
After inspecting the Sadapathar area on Wednesday afternoon, Nazmus Sadat told reporters that the local administration was responsible most for such an incident of looting natural resources.
鈥業t is being investigated whether the administration was involved in the damage of the tourism sector,鈥� he said, adding that the administration should have been more vigilant in protecting the natural resources at Sadapathar.
鈥楾hose who conspired to loot stones would be identified and an investigation report in this regard would be sent to higher authorities,鈥� he said.聽
Earlier at noon, a nine-member Anti-Corruption Commission team led by Nazmus Sadat reached Sadapathar at Companiganj, an upazila along Indian border, to investigate the massive looting of stones.
The Sylhet district administration also formed a three-member committee to investigate the incident of massive looting of stones from Sadapathar.
Sylhet deputy commissioner Mohammad Sher Mahbub Murad told 抖阴精品 on Wednesday that the committee would be led by an additional deputy commissioner.
鈥楾he committee will submit its report by next Sunday,鈥� he said.
鈥楤esides, we continue with various activities, including removing the crusher mills, disconnecting electricity from the mills,鈥� he said, adding that their campaigns for protecting the environment and tourist spots would continue.
During the Sheikh Hasina-led regime, the High Court had suspended extracting stones from the Sadapathar area as part of efforts to protect the environment.
Though the looting of stones from the Sadapathar area increased after the fall of authoritarian Awami League regime in a mass uprising on August 5, 2024, and it has continued since then, the administration remained silent and did not take any effective step to stop destroying nature, the local people said.
They said that unscrupulous people having political connections took advantage of fragile law and order situation in the country after the 2024 political changeover to loot stones from the Sadapathar area.
A section of people had arranged a rally in Sylhet city in the last week of June with the demand of reopening the stone quarries of Sylhet for extracting stones and sand and reinstating power connections to stone-crusher mills.
Local leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, National Citizen Party and Jamaat-e-Islami had attended that rally after expressing solidarity with the programme organisers鈥� demand.
People of Companiganj and its adjoining upazilas said that such a support from the political leaders had encouraged the unscrupulous quarter to be reckless in looting the natural resources.
