Illegal advertisers nail down city greens
Illegal advertisers are nailing their advertising boards to trees indiscriminately. The environment minister has warned of heavy fines for the offenders but the message has not gone through
Sohel Islam
Despite an order by the ministry, advertisements nailed on the trees throughout the city have continued in full swing.Minister for Environment and Forest Shahjahan Siraj in June this year launched a drive to evict the advertisements bolted in the trees. During the drive, Shahjahan Siraj warned of serious consequences and fines if any organisation ventured into such display of their advertisements. Most coaching centres and other organisation with fascinating words in long apparels or iron sheet try to entice the clients. "Although our government has tried to improve the city's environment there is always scope for improvement. That's why I myself launched the drive against these advertisement," said the environment minister. "The advertisers can use different mediums to display their advertisements. Why are they harming the trees?" questioned Shahjahan Siraj. "I won't let anybody use the trees as mediums of displaying their advertisements. I know some of them are coming back, violating official order. Very soon we will clamp down on them," said Shahjahan Siraj. "If necessary, we will enact law in the parliament to ban these sorts of advertisements. I will suggest to the legislators to introduce heavy fines for the violators," said Shahjahan Siraj. "I haven't seen this strange practice anywhere in the world. This is completely inhuman. But there are other prioritised issues like air, water and noise pollution which are damaging our environment," said General Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon Naser Khan. "Our ogranisation has thought of it. We will raise our voices against this bad practice," said Khan. The reporter tried to reach the organisations, which have displayed the advertisement on the trees. Almost all of them declined to comment on it. "My organisation is too small to put advertisement on the print and electronic media. Sometimes we try to give the classified advertisements to the newspapers. But we cannot do it frequently," said an official of a coaching centre requesting anonymity. "We also do not want to put the advertisement on display in this way. But we do not have any option but to go for it," said the official.
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