Adviser Muhammad Faozul Kabir Khan today spoke at a meeting held at the conference room of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. Photo: PID

DHAKA, April 27, 2025 (BSS) - Considering environmental concerns, the government has decided to suspend the leasing process of 17 stone quarries out of 51 in the country.

No leases will be given for quarries that are under court injunctions or located within declared Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA).

This decision was taken today at a meeting held at the conference room of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources with Adviser Muhammad Faozul Kabir Khan in the chair.

Environment, Forest and Climate Change Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Home Adviser Lieutenant General (Retd.) Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury were also present.

Additionally, to preserve natural beauty, the leasing activities in the Bhulagonj, Utmachaora, Ratanpur, Bichanakandi, and Lovachora stone quarries of Sylhet district will also remain suspended.

The meeting further decided that before approving leases for other quarries, obtaining an Environmental Clearance Certificate from the Department of Environment will be made mandatory.

Local administrations have been asked to take legal action against those actually involved in illegal stone extraction, rather than targeting the workers.

In addition, illegally extracted stones must not be sold; instead, they will be supplied for government construction works through customs.

In this regard, the Environment Adviser thanked the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and suggested that a similar policy could be adopted to control unregulated sand extraction as well.

She emphasised that such steps would protect the environment and public interest, ensuring the lawful use of natural resources like sand and stones.

Supplying illegally extracted stones through customs for government use would also help curb illegal extraction, Rizwana said.

She also mentioned that overcoming previous limitations, the Department of Environment is now better prepared to take appropriate measures to protect the environment and ecosystems.

On 18 February 2020, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources had suspended stone extraction from all stone quarries until further notice.

Later, on 13 January 2025, a decision was made to lift the suspension, which raised concerns from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Consequently, today's meeting resulted in these new decisions, said a press release of the environment ministry.

The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr. Farhina Ahmed, Secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division Mohammad Saiful Islam, Divisional Commissioner of Sylhet Division and Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet District, along with representatives of various ministries and organisations.