UNB, Dhaka :
South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), a newly created regional human rights body, on Thursday alleged that the government has been proceeding to implement the coal-fired Rampal power plant project based on arbitrary power, not logic.
“Just a feudal mentality has been working in their minds in implementing the project,” said Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, a noted social and environmental activist.
Also founder chairman of Bishwa Sahitya Kendra, a non-profit organization that promotes the study of literature, reading habits and progressive ideas, Prof. Sayeed said that it is a serious crime to implement a project ignoring the local people’s lives and livelihood.
Professor Sayeed was speaking at the National Press Club, during the launch of a report
based on fact-finding mission on the Rampal power plant project by SAHR.
Addressing the function, bureau member of the SAHR Sultana Kamal said this project will directly hit the local people’s rights to live. Even the ecology, flora and fauna of the Sundarbans forest will be the direct victims of the project.
She said that if the government continues to proceed with the project, it will be the ultimate denial of at least 10 vital obligations of the total 16 commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) prepared by the United Nations.
“So, we urge the government to pull out from this location and choose a new one which will not be harmful to the Sundarbans and its ecology and also local community,” Kamal concluded. The function was also addressed by TIB executive director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Professor Shamsul Alam of CAB, Dhaka University professor Dr. Tanjib Uddin, Professor Anu Mohammad and Khushi Kabir.
The SAHR fact finding mission was conducted by Dr. Harun Chowdhury and Sharif Jamil from Bangladesh. External expertise was given by Nityanand Jayaraman and Sagar Dhara from India.
South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), a newly created regional human rights body, on Thursday alleged that the government has been proceeding to implement the coal-fired Rampal power plant project based on arbitrary power, not logic.
“Just a feudal mentality has been working in their minds in implementing the project,” said Professor Abdullah Abu Sayeed, a noted social and environmental activist.
Also founder chairman of Bishwa Sahitya Kendra, a non-profit organization that promotes the study of literature, reading habits and progressive ideas, Prof. Sayeed said that it is a serious crime to implement a project ignoring the local people’s lives and livelihood.
Professor Sayeed was speaking at the National Press Club, during the launch of a report
based on fact-finding mission on the Rampal power plant project by SAHR.
Addressing the function, bureau member of the SAHR Sultana Kamal said this project will directly hit the local people’s rights to live. Even the ecology, flora and fauna of the Sundarbans forest will be the direct victims of the project.
She said that if the government continues to proceed with the project, it will be the ultimate denial of at least 10 vital obligations of the total 16 commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) prepared by the United Nations.
“So, we urge the government to pull out from this location and choose a new one which will not be harmful to the Sundarbans and its ecology and also local community,” Kamal concluded. The function was also addressed by TIB executive director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Professor Shamsul Alam of CAB, Dhaka University professor Dr. Tanjib Uddin, Professor Anu Mohammad and Khushi Kabir.
The SAHR fact finding mission was conducted by Dr. Harun Chowdhury and Sharif Jamil from Bangladesh. External expertise was given by Nityanand Jayaraman and Sagar Dhara from India.
