Over 2.57 lakh acres forest land under illegal occupation: Saber Hossain
UNB
Publish: 03 Jul 2024, 01:22 AM
Sangsad Bhaban, Jul 2 (UNB)- Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Affairs Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury on Tuesday said over 2.57 lakh acres
land of the forest department is under illegal occupation.
The minister said that of
the total grabbed land, a total of 30,162 acres has been recovered from the
hands of grabbers as of last May.
The environment minister
said this in Parliament replying to a query from ruling Awami League MP elected
from Chattogram M Abdul Latif.
He said that the eviction proposal
will be sent for the recovery of 5,000 acres of occupied forest land under a
100 working days priority action plan.
Moreover, activities have
been intensified to recover the remaining encroached forest lands.
In response to a query from
Independent MP elected from Kishoreganj Suhrab Uddin, the environment minister
said that there are a total of 6,876 brick kilns across the country.
From January to June, a
total of 170 mobile courts across the country conducted operations against 611
illegal brick kilns, collected a fine of Tk 15.08 crore and demolished 250
brick kilns, he added.
The Environment Minister
said that the government has set a target of using eco-friendly blocks as an
alternative to bricks in all government construction, repair and renovation
works except for roads and highways in order to prevent air pollution and reduce
soil use of agricultural land.
In this case, the programme
of increasing the production and use of blocks is being implemented with the
help of local government engineering department, public works department and
other related departments or organisations and construction related partners.
In response to the question
of ruling Awami League MP elected from Bhola Nurunnabi Chowdhury, Agriculture
Minister Abdus Shahid said that in the financial year 2008-09, some 1,96,071
tonnes of pulses were produced in Bangladesh.
In the financial year
2022-23 it increased five times and and stood and 10,80,47 tonnes, he added.
END/UNB/FF/FH/1949 Hrs