Locals were kept in dark about power plant

S Alam Group, the company at the centre of Banshkhali row, bought land in Gondamara union in the name of textiles and vegetable oil companies and then started developing it as a site for a coal-fired power plant. 

The group, however, did not have the site clearance for the plant.

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A letter from Banshkhali upazila land office of Chittagong says 660.40 acres of land have been bought by the group's two companies -- Genesis Textile Accessories and Apparels Ltd and S Alam Vegetable Oil Ltd.

A copy of the letter, addressed to assistant commissioner (land) of Banshkhali, has been obtained by The Daily Star.

The group wanted 5,000 acres of land in Gondamara for 1,320 megawatt electricity plant and other industrial projects, according to the letter signed on November 5, 2015 by the surveyor and the kanungo.

“We might purchase more land there if we need to build other industrial units. But currently we have purchased land for our coal-based power plant, not for other industries,” said executive director of S Alam Group.

“So far, we have completed registration of about 655 acres of land and process for another 200 acres is ongoing,” he told one of these correspondents over the phone on Monday.

While purchasing the land, he said, they were yet to form the company to implement the power project. So, they bought the land in the name of the two companies.

However, the group has started to develop the land and build site office and other structures for the coal plant. It also demarcated several hundred acres of khas land to take it in its possession. 

People have been staging protests against the move to install the power plant since they saw its signboard on the proposed site two months ago. And one such protest led to a clash with police on April 4, leaving four people killed and many others injured.

The locals, most of whom are farmers, fishermen and salt producers, vowed not to let anyone go ahead with the project “at any cost”, saying it would bring an environmental disaster to the area.

The area where the clash took place. The photos were taken on Monday. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

They allege S Alam Group misled land owners while buying land. The group had initially said it needed land for textiles and apparel factories. But now it is setting up a coal plant.

Abdul Karim, a protester from Pashchim Gondamara village, said the land owners agreed to sell land as they were not told that it was for a coal plant. 

“We do not have problem if they build other factories here. Many of us would get work. But if they build coal-fired power plant, we would have to leave this place even if they do not drive us away.”

Helal Uddin, a land owner, said S Alam Group had already paid him earnest money for his land. Like many others, he was told that it was for setting up some textile units. 

These are not the only instances that the group is misleading people.

It has advertised in different Bangla and English dailies, claiming that the Department of Environment issued “primary clearance certificate” in favour of the plant on March 22.

An advertisement published on April 11 states, “The officials of the Department of Environment visited the project area physically. In the primary clearance certificate issued on March 22 of 2016, the director of Department of Environment said, there is no chance of bad effect to the public health if the project is established in the coastal area. It had  been sent to headquarters in Dhaka for Locational Clearance Certificate.”

But Mokbul Hossain, DoE director of Chittagong division, said the department has not issued any kind of certificate or site clearance for the power plant in Gondamara.

“Our divisional offices are not entitled to provide such kind of certificate,” he told this newspaper over the phone on Monday. 

Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Mentioning that site clearance is mandatory before installation of any plant, he said, “On March 22, following directives of Department of Environment headquarters, a team from its Chittagong division office visited the site and sent a partial field report to its headquarters after collecting primary information.”

Asked about the issue, Raisul Alam Mondal, director general of DoE, said he was just astonished to see such an advertisement.

He added the department would sit in a day or two about clearance of a number of projects. “We have around 100 to 150 applications pending. We may discuss the S Alam Group issue during our meeting.”

Asked yesterday what kind of clearance S Alam Group actually got, Subrata Bhowmik said he would call back since he was in a meeting.

However, he could not be reached later.