Syeda Rizwana Hasan, advisor to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Water Resources commented that Hilsa is not going as a gift to India. He said, it will be exported, Bangladesh government will get the export money. That’s not a small amount of money.
He said these things to the media workers after visiting the collapsed Muchapur regulator area of Companyganj upazila of Noakhali on Monday morning.
The advisor said that hilsa has not yet left Bangladesh. Just decided. The price has already increased. So it is not true that the price will increase if exported. That is under the consideration of the government.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan said that those who want the hilsa, but they have also given a lot of support to the anti-discrimination student movement. We all saw that. We must always remember that we have to discuss many issues with our neighbors. We don’t want the edge of that discussion to be closed on small issues.
Apart from this, Rizwana commented that the extraction of sand from the river has become a ‘national bandit’ and said that wherever there is sand in the river, the district administrators declare balumhal despite the objections of the people and thinking about the revenue. There is scope for declaration as well as for abolition.
He also said that it is time for us to think whether we will hand over dredging of the river to the sand traders or dredging will be done by the government.
Mentioning that Muchapur regulator will be needed to prevent the encroachment of salt water, he said that it is not possible to build the regulator day by day. It has a process. Even if we want to build the regulator quickly, it will take two to three years. Locals have suggested to remove the sand from the char that has been here. Maintenance dredging should be done along with capital dredging in the river.
Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources Nazmul Ahsan, Director General of Water Development Board Muhammad Amirul Haque Bhuiyan, Noakhali District Commissioner Khandaker Istiaq Ahmed, Executive Engineer of Water Development Board Munsi Amir Faisal, Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Khawaja Tanveer Ahmed and other senior officials of the district administration were present.
