200 roadside trees felled in Thakurgaon
Logs of a few of around 200 roadside trees felled illegally in Haripur upazila of Thakurgaon seen stacked by the road at Moshangaon village. Villagers alleged that a few aides to the local UP chairman cut down the trees in the last one month and sold those secretly.Photo: STAR
Unscrupulous people have cut down around 200 roadside trees in Haripur union under Haripur upazila of the district and sold them to locals. On receiving a complaint from a ward councillor of the union on Saturday, upazila LGED officials led by Engineer Abdus Samad raided at different places of the union on Sunday and Monday and seized only 38 logs of the felled trees. Locals alleged that Kutub Ali and Mobarak Hossain, close aides to Haripur Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Mominul Islam, felled around 200 trees, including fruit-bearing mango, jackfruit and guava trees, along Bottali-Khathaldangi Road recently, saying that the chairman gave them permission to cut down the trees. As the duo failed to show the villagers any paper relating to the chairman's order, they informed ward councillor Shahjahan Ali of the matter. Being informed, Shajahan Ali went to the area on Saturday and saw Kutub Ali, also a supervisor of Road Infrastructure Development Project-21, and his associate Mobarak felled the roadside trees and sold many of them. “When they offered me Tk 20,000, I informed upazila LGED Engineer Abdus Samad of the matter,” the ward councillor told this correspondent Contacted, UP Chairman Mominul Islam said he did not issue any such order to cut down the trees. “It's a conspiracy to tarnish my image,” he added. "LGED planted the trees on Bottali-Khathaldangi Road in Haripur upazila under Road Infrastructure Development Project-21 in 2001. Engineer Abdus Samad said they issued a show cause notice to project supervisor Kutub Ali and filed a General Diary (GD) with Haripuir Police Station.
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