Human chain in Mymensingh protesting Brahmaputra dredging and sand trade

Nagorik संगठन Mymensingh Mancha held a human chain and protest rally in Mymensingh on Friday afternoon to protest the unplanned dredging, illegal sand trade, and encroachment of the old Brahmaputra River. The program took place in the Kachari Ghat area of the city.

Speakers at the rally stated that in 2019, a dredging project worth about 3 thousand crore taka was undertaken under BIWTA to restore the navigability of the old Brahmaputra River. Although the 227-kilometer area from the source of the Brahmaputra to Tok in Kapasia was supposed to be dredged, there has been no visible progress in the last seven years. Instead, the river is becoming even more waterless in the dry season. They also complained that due to the stockpiling of dredged sand on the riverbanks, it is falling under the control of illegal encroachers. Furthermore, illegal sand extraction under political patronage is changing the river's course, causing people along the riverbanks to lose their homesteads and agricultural land. Permanent structures are being constructed on river land on various pretexts in collusion with the administration, and encroachers' dominance continues in the dying Brahmaputra River.

The rally was presided over by Mymensingh Mancha's chief coordinator Imtiaz Ahmed, where demands were made for effective measures to protect the river and environmental balance. The program was addressed by the organization's co-chief coordinator Abu Bakkar Siddique Rumel, Engineer M. A. Jinnah, Md. Kamruzzaman Saj, and other local leaders.

Reported by 5 outlets. See the original sources below for full details.