People living at the foot of hills should be rehabilitated to safe places to avert accidents from land slide, observed green activists in a demonstration in the city of Chittagong on Monday.
They also wanted that the people grabbing hilly lands should be tried immediately.
They were addressing a human chain and rally in front of the Chittagong Press Club in the morning.
Jana Udyog, the Environment Students’ Forum, the People’s Voice and Barnali jointly organised the programme.
Jana Udyog co-ordinator Sharif Chowhan chaired the rally that was addressed, among others, by Shyamal Chandra Majumder, professors Yunus Hasan and Edris Ali, Atiqur Rahman, Kamrul Islam and Saraj Kanti Das.
Referring to 2007 landslide accident in Chittagong, the speakers said that around 800 poor families were living on the foot of hills.
They feared that, with the onset of monsoon, landslide accidents might occur in the risky areas.
They complained that the authorities concerned had been showing negligence in stopping hill cutting, setting up houses and structures illegally at foot of the hills and stopping land grabbers.
They also expressed their concern over grabbing hill lands and renting houses illegally built on those lands.