The authorities concerned are yet to take any measure to relocate the people living in the hills slopes in the Sylhet city and its outskirts to reduce casualties in case of any incident of landslide.
Even no information is available with the local administration about the number of people living at the foothills and on their slopes in and around the city, sources in the district administration said.
According to data prepared by the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association, there are 250 hills in the city and its suburbs and more than 5,000 families have been living on tops and bases of the hills for long.
Over 1,000 of the families have been passing days amid a serious theater of landslide. But the local government bodies have no monitoring in this regard.
Places in the city where people are most vulnerable to landslide are Baluchar, Alurtal, Brahman Shasan, Karerpara, Kolyanpur, Gopaltila, Jugitila, Majortila, Khadimnagar, Bagbari, Haldarpara, Gotatikar, Airport area and Mohammadpur under Dakkhin Surma in the city.
BELA's Sylhet unit coordinator Shaheda Aktar told New Age that the government should take immediate steps to rehabilitate the people living in the risky hills in the city and elsewhere in the region to reduce casualties in landslide.
'Incidents of landslide take place especially in the hilly areas and at least eight persons were killed in such incidents in and around the Sylhet city in the past three years,' she added.
Local sources said most of the hills in the city are government land or owned by the forest department. Mainly the poor and low-income group people are living in such lands.
Besides, some affluent people, using political identities, have raised thatched houses on some foothills and their slopes and have rented them to the poor families, the sources said.
Being contacted, deputy commissioner Abu Syed Md Hashim told New Age on Saturday that they had no exact figure regarding the people living in the risky hill areas.
'The upazila nirbahi officers and other officials concerned have already been asked to conduct a survey in this regard and prepare a list of the families residing vulnerably on the hills and their slopes,' he added.
Sylhet city mayor Badar Uddin Ahmad Kamran said the city corporation had its regular development projects to improve the livelihoods of unprivileged people.
'But we cannot take step to evacuate the families living in vulnerable situation at different hillocks and hillsides as the hills are owned by other organisations of the government,' Kamran said.
Source : New Age
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