The interim government has decided to suspend the leasing process of 17 stone quarries out of 51 in the country over environmental concerns.
No leases will be given for quarries that are under court injunctions or located within declared Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA).
This decision was taken on Sunday at a meeting held at the conference room of the power, energy and mineral resources ministry 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 power, energy and mineral resources ministry 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 power, energy and mineral resources ministry had suspended stone extraction from all stone quarries until further notice.
Later, on January 13, 2025, a decision was made to lift the suspension, which raised concerns from environment, forest and climate change ministry.
Consequently, today鈥檚 meeting resulted in these new decisions, said a press release of the environment ministry.
The meeting was attended by environment, forest and climate change ministry secretary Farhina Ahmed, Energy and Mineral Resources Division secretary Mohammad Saiful Islam, divisional commissioner of Sylhet division and deputy commissioner of Sylhet District, along with representatives of various ministries and organisations.