In Laksam, open cutting of crop land is prohibited.

Riyad Bhuiyan, Laksam (Comilla) Representative :

In Comilla Laksam Upazila, tractor after tractor is plowing the crop land. The aim is to take the cut soil from cropland to brick kiln, pond drain. Influential circles are conducting illegal cutting of crop land. Crop land cutting festival is going on. Three-crop agricultural land is turning into ponds. Day by day crop production is decreasing, farmers are unemployed, environment is getting polluted. A short distance away, the work of cutting the soil of the land is going on from the middle of the vast cropland with the latest Veku machine. Many brick kiln workers are busy collecting that soil. The land on which paddy was sown is now a huge hole. Also Union and rural roads are getting damaged due to use of heavy trucks, tractors and Mahendra trolleys for soil transport. Acts of disobeying the law are going on in different areas of Laksam Upazila of Comilla district. Farmers are selling the topsoil of the arable land. Due to the removal of this part of the soil rich in minerals and organic matter especially humus (organic particles), the fertility of the land is decreasing. Agronomists say, as a result, those lands will not produce the desired crop for several years. Soil is said to be cut for building foundations of houses and for use in brick kilns. Soil shall not be taken from fallow land, canals, rivers, marshes or pastures for making bricks. Section 5 of Brick Preparation and Kiln Installation (Regulation) Act-2013 is not being implemented in Laksam Upazila. Day after day, 7 brick kilns built in the upazila are showing thumbs up to the local and environment department. As no action has been taken against brick kilns that violate the law, the destruction of cropland is actually going on in this upazila. According to the research, each kiln produces about 50 to 60 lakh bricks every year. 15-20 excavators and about 200 tractors are working in the crop field to cut the soil of 7 brick kilns in the upazila. A class of truck owners and drivers are luring farmers and buying land. They are selling soil for 700 to 1200 taka per truck. In Bakai, Mudafarganj, Gobindpur Union and some wards of the municipality, the soil is cut with 7 vekus in the arable land and taken by tractors for making sinks, drains, house foundations and brick kilns. Every day from dawn to dusk, Mativarti tractors are moving across the crop fields forcing roads. Due to this, crops and roads on both sides are being destroyed by dust. Innocent farmers can’t even say anything against it. Kalu Mia, a farmer of Bakai Union, said that 3 feet of soil of one person’s 80 ding land of 3 crops of Koyar Mouza Bill is being taken to Paranpur Al Madina Bricks. At present we farmers have become very helpless. If somehow they can buy the soil of a farmer’s land then the neighboring land owner is also forced to sell the soil. In this way, the image of the whole bill is changing and now it is taking shape. Bakai South Union Parishad Chairman Abdul Awal Abul said, I was busy in the UP elections a few days ago and did not know that soil was being cut from arable land in Konya area and taken to BRICS. I heard that the administration has arrested a veku. Salimullah Shaheen, the owner of Al Madina Bricks in Paranpur area, said that it is true that we are bringing soil to Bricks after talking to the tractor owners. But I don’t know from which land the tractor owners will bring soil. In this regard, Laksam Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Farhanur Rahman said, if someone complains to us in writing or verbally, then we take measures to close it permanently through the local UP chairman. Apart from this, in the last few days, Veku machine has been seized and fined in Ajkara Union. On Wednesday, a veku machine was seized through the OC of Laksam police station after receiving information about cutting the soil of agricultural land with veku in Konya area. Md. Kamruzzaman Bhuiyan Riyadh Laksam, Comilla. 01672-842267