Chittagong hillslide
Skeletons in the cupboard revealing
The Chittagong mudslide, which claimed 123 lives, has brought to the fore a host of issues relating to environmental degradation, especially razing of hills in the port city. The latest report shows that the highly perilous flattening of hilly terrain has not been the doing of a few nondescript anti-socials having no respect for or understanding of the law; rather, the crime has been committed by highly placed influential people ranging from ministers and politicians to top businessmen. There was simply nobody to check the indiscriminate cutting of hills which actually exposed a huge number of people to devastating landslides. The latest disaster has shown what a price the ordinary people had to pay for an avoidable and preventable encroachment upon the nature by predators in the guise of fellow humans. As it always happens in our context, it usually takes a disaster to awaken us to the need for taking corrective steps when all sorts of appalling details keep pouring in. The saddest part of the story is that the mudslide is not the first of its kind. Yet, the deaths in the past were not deemed to be reason enough to stop tinkering with nature. Timely intervention has never been any government's forte. The fact of the matter is that there was no enforcement of the law put in place as far back as in 1988 despite the environmentalists being quite vocal about the issue. So, the responsibility has to be shared equally by the local administration including law enforcement agencies along with CDA and forest and environmental authorities. The process of setting things right must begin with the law enforcers approaching the problem with a firm resolve not to allow such predatory activities on the part of the influential people. The mobile courts that have now come into play should be a regular feature. Simultaneously, a social awareness campaign must also be organised to put up timely resistance against encroachment of all kinds. Finally, the people responsible for causing so much distress to others must be brought to justice, regardless of who they are, after a thorough inquiry is made into the disaster. In immediate terms, the government has to pay due compensation to the affected families while the surviving and still vulnerable ones are suitably rehabilitated.
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