The women and men of Sundarban, Hargaon and Sadarpur villages staged an hour-long human chain and protest march demanding the stoppage of the construction of the sluice gate of the Water Development Board in the registered property of Danga/Ardashgram at the confluence of Atrai and Garveshwari rivers in Dinajpur Sadar, Sundarban UP.
On Thursday, over 200 women, men, teenagers and young women of 3 villages held a human chain program at the place of sluice gate, demanding to stop the construction of sluice gate constructed under the supervision of Water Development Board in Sundarban Village No. 2 of Sundarban UP of Dinajpur Sadar.
At the time, they said, the construction of sluice gate by destroying hundreds of acres of arable land is a sudden decision and thousands of farmers will be forced to live an inhumane life with their families in the future. We have already submitted a petition signed by all the villagers to Dinajpur District Commissioner, Executive Engineer of Water Development Board and other heads of departments to stop the construction of sluice gate, but there is no result. However, the District Commissioner has instructed the Dinajpur Water Development Board to take necessary measures and inform.
At present, the construction work of sluice gate is being carried out at a fast pace. They demanded from the government that there is no affluent land here, if you want to develop, build a sustainable dam and not a sluice gate and acquire the land by paying the fair price of the land to the helpless people. They said, don't take away the land of helpless farmers unjustly, if the sluice gate is constructed here by force, the farmers will suffer extreme loss.
They also said that the sluice gate built by the government at the cost of hundreds of crores of rupees is not being done for the welfare of the people, but rather a conspiracy is being made to put farmers in the way. Many of us are making our living and livelihood by farming on this land with loans from various financial institutions including Rajshahi Krishi Bank. Construction of sluice gates here will permanently turn hundreds of acres of property and arable agricultural land into water bodies, leaving us landless.
Teacher Mukti Kumar Roy, farmer Tozammel Haque, Noor Islam, Ekramul Haque, Shri Amulya Roy, Ripon Roy etc. addressed the short rally during the human chain.
In this regard, he went to the office of the Civil Engineer of Dinajpur Water Development Board and waited for a long time, but the Civil Engineer Rakibul Hasan wanted to meet with the journalists and kept deliberately delaying and did not give any kind of meeting.
