Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday directed the concerned bodies of the government to file cases against 30 washing plants as those are responsible for polluting water in the Buriganga River near Keraniganj area.
Dhaka district office of the environment department has been asked to file the cases within 30 days against the accused organizations. The High Court bench of Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order after holding hearing a writ petition filed in this regard by a rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB).
The High Court has also directed the respondents to take appropriate measures for monitoring to prevent any person or organization from dumping garbage in the Buriganga River near Keraniganj area.
Deputy commissioner (DC) and police superintendent (SP) of Dhaka, upazila chairman and upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Keraniganj upazila and officer in charge (OC) of Keraniganj police station have been asked to comply with the directives.
The court also directed the local administration to take legal action against the persons who would be found responsible for the pollution of the Buriganga water.
The court directed the respondents to submit a progress report in the court on the first Sunday of every month in this regard.
Advocate Manzill Murshid took part in the hearing on behalf of HRPB, while Advocate Amatul Karim represented the environment department and Deputy Attorney General Kazi Mainul Hasan represented the State.
During the hearing Manzill Murshid said, “The environment department closed the activities of the organizations for two times following the High Court orders passed on February 20, March 11 and September 14 last year. But the organizations again started their activities and had continued pollution of the Buriganga water.”
In this circumstance, the lawyer prayed to the court to pass direction upon the respondents to file cases against the organizations as there had a provision in the act for filing cases for polluting river water.
Environment department’s report submitted in the court said that a total of 30 washing plants are polluting water in the Buriganga River near Keraniganj area.
The plants are Ahmad Hossain washing, Amena washing, Sunmoon washing, Eden washing, Bismillah washing, Lotus washing, Global washing, Rubel washing, Anushka washing, Satota washing, Chanchal washing, Abdur Rob washing, Dhaka washing, Azan washing, New Sahara washing.
The list also included the names of Dohar washing, Relative washing, Newnasha washing, Unique washing, Mou washing, Setu washing, Quality washing, Juena washing, Kamal washing, Water Color washing, Perjoar washing, GM washing, Cumilla washing, Achia washing and Lili washing.
