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HC asks govt to help villagers affected by water-logging in Jessore Shahiduzzaman.

The High Court on Sunday directed the government to provide all the necessary services, products, goods and other supports within its means to ensure that the people affected by prolonged water-logging in the three upazilas of Jessore are safety re-located and given relief.

A High Court bench of Justice Syed Mohammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Mamnun Rahman also issued a rule on the government to show cause within a month why its failure to protect and help the people affected by the catastrophic and prolonged water-logging in the three upazilas of Jessore should not be declared to be without lawful authority and in violation of its statutory duties.

The government was also asked to explain why it should not be directed to draw up necessary action plans in consultation with the local people and why a directive should not be issued upon it to form a committee composed of the persons nominated by the Supreme Court to permanently solve the problems caused by such a catastrophe and for arranging adequate compensation for the people affected and impoverished by prolonged water-logging.

The directives were issued to, amongst others, chairman of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, deputy commissioner of Jessore, deputy director of the Department of Environment in Khulna and the upazila nirbahi officers of Abhaynagar, Manirampur and�Keshabpur.

The court passed the orders after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust who are seeking appropriate judicial intervention to alleviate the sufferings of the people of 144 villages of the three upazilas of Abhaynagar, Manirampur and Keshabpur in Jessore. Their months of suffering have been caused by prolonged water-logging resulting from the implementation of the faulty Khulna Jessore Drainage Rehabilation Project of the Asian Development Bank and Bangladesh Water Development Board.

The court orders came up at a time when, due to the faulty project, more than one lakh people of the 144 villagers were forced to live an inhuman life with their homesteads, agricultural lands, schools and roads remaining under water since October, 2005.

Although in a meeting, held in November 2005 with the three members of parliament present, it was decided that the situation should be dealt with on an emergency basis, and although the Water Development Board continues to claim that it has submitted yet another project worth Tk 92 crore, the local people are yet to be freed of this unprecedented water-logging that has resulted in unbearable suffering of the villagers who cannot earn a living due to submergence of their agricultural lands, the petitioners� counsel Hassan Ariff argued before the court.

Local people have demanded removal of the Bhobodoho sluice gate which they believe to be the root of the problem, and have for long been demanding adequate relief and support from the national and local administrations, butto no avail, he contended.

The petition was moved by former attorney-general Hassan Ariff with Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Iqbal Kabir.