Youths for stopping pond filling in Rajshahi as per HC directive

RAJSHAHI, Aug 21 (BSS): A large number of youths and students from different parts of the city unequivocally called for stopping pond and water body filling in the city indiscriminately as per the directive of High Court (HC).
Simultaneously, they also underscored the need for full-length implementation of the High Court verdict for betterment of the city dwellers. Immediate steps should be taken to recover the filled ponds.
The youths made the call while addressing a youth-chain-cum-street corner meeting at Shaheb Bazar Zero point in the city on Wednesday.
Reformation Commu-nity of Bangladesh and Resource Centre for Indi-genous Knowledge (BARCIK) jointly organised the meeting to press home the demands.
Youth leaders Zulfiker Ali Haider, Naznin Naher, Rakibul Hassan, Tahura Khatun and BARCIK Regional Coordinator Shahidul Islam, among others, addressed the meeting.
The meeting was told that numerous ponds are being filled by dumping waste so that the water there would be contaminated.
As the High Court has given a directive to stop the filling of all kinds of wetland in and around the city Rajshahi, a vested-interest group is using a new tactic to fill ponds.
Shahidul Islam said around 4,000 ponds have been filled because of the indiscriminate earth-dumping and unplanned urbanisation in the last five decades.