April 2024
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Published by
Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) and Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED)
Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) and Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED)
Background
The Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) and its alliance the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED) strongly support a Just and Equitable Transition which could be achieved by implementing 100% Renewable Energy (RE) in Bangladesh.
At the same time, to ensure the ‘just transition’, the local environment, natural resources, and livelihood must be protected. Energy transition through grabbing agricultural land and water bodies does not comply with ‘Just’ and ‘Equitable’. In this context, the conflict between villagers and LandCo in Tetulia Upazila of Panchagarh District over a Solar Power Plant has been monitored. There is a strong allegation against LandCo that they grabbed hundreds of acres of cultivable land at the Shekhgos village of Debengarh (Debnagar) Union under Tetulia upazila of Panchagarh district in Bangladesh. It has been learned that the company started to purchase the land in 2017 but now went to possess the land where the villagers cultivated their crops. The company people demolish the villagers' crops, homes, and movable assets to control the land, as reported by some media [1]. Villagers protested it but they didn’t stop, finally, they controlled over 100 acres of land and fenced it. Another media reported that the tension was created artificially to delay the construction work of a solar power plant [2]. The company officials said that they would establish a 100 MW solar power plant there but they started their activities in the name of Seasonal Agricultural Farm (Mousumi Krishi Khamar), which is controlled and guided by LandCo, as reported by other media [3]. Tension was raised in the area regarding the deals of land purchase. According to the villagers, the company officials are trying to grab more land saying their purchased land still needs to be fulfilled.