The High Court has issued a contempt of court rule against 12 people, including four secretaries, asking them to explain why it should not initiate contempt proceedings against them for breaching its order for not establishing installations on forest department land in Cox’s Bazar.
The bench of Justice Mohammad Ashfaqul Islam and Justice Mohammad Ashraful Kamal passed the order at the end of a preliminary hearing on a contempt plea filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).
The four secretaries are Environment Secretary Shafiqur Rahman Patwari, Land Secretary Mokhlesur Rahman, Housing Secretary Golam Rabbani and Civil Aviation Secretary Khurshid Alam Chowdhury.
The other respondents are Chairman of Bangladesh Tourism Corporation Maksudul Hasan Khan, Chittagong Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Abdullah, Director General of the Environment Directorate Raisul Alam Mondol, Deputy Commissioner of Cox’s Bazar district Ruhul Amin, Cox’s Bazar district Superintendent of Police Azad Mia, Chittagong Divisional Forest Officer Sarker Abdul Awal, Cox’s Bazar Sadar Upazila Executive Officer Shahidul Islam and Director of the Environment Directorate (Chittagong circle) Jafar Alam.
They have been given two weeks to explain.
Following construction of a housing project on a land held by the forest department in Cox’s Bazar, BELA filed a writ petition in the High Court in December last year.
Advocate Iqbal Kabir Liton, who argued for the petitioner at the hearing yesterday, told the Dhaka Tribune that the High Court, in a verdict on June 8, 2011, had ordered the government to remove all installations from the land within a month.
“But the government had gone ahead with executing the project on the land defying the court order,” he said. He told reporters that 51 acres of land in Jhilanja Mouja in Cox’s Bazar was considered “environmentally vulnerable.”
“The High Court had asked the government to submit a report after implementing the order. But the government is persisting with the housing project instead of implementing the court order,” he added.
