Ban on settlement in vulnerable foothills soon

---

CHITTAGONG, Aug 19 (UNB): The caretaker government is going to ban human habitation in most vulnerable foothill areas in the port city.

Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman announced Tuesday the government step as he visited the site of the devastating landslide that took a toll of at least 11 people dead and buried under mud.

"The most vulnerable areas at the foothills will be red-marked and settlement in those areas would be barred soon," he told his audience at Motijharna Hossain Colony near Lalkhan Bazar where the mudslide took place.

Mr Zillur, the influential adviser of the caretaker government, said he ordered the local administration to identify those involved in setting up houses at foothills and bring them to justice.

He also said the magistrates of the mobile courts would be empowered to check the hill-cutting misdeed.

The adviser also declared that the authority would provide Tk 0.425 million (4.25 lakh) as compensation to the six affected families.

Later, he went round the devastated areas for a spot view of the mudslide, which occurred a little over a year after a more devastating hill collapse that had taken 128 lives.

Earlier in the morning, Mr Zillur held a meeting with administrative officials at the circuit house.

Monday's landslide triggered by torrential rain left at least 11 people dead and scores injured.

According to the latest reports, rescuers recovered the bodies of four women, four children and two men from under a huge chunk of mud that buried their thatched homes at the foothills while they were asleep early Monday. An eleventh man died on his way to a hospital.

The mudslide destroyed 14 houses of a slum built on a hillside from which the government was relocating families apprehending further danger.